The Tear
by 13en-writes-all
Summary: In the future when our ancestors have discovered multiple alien species, they've also made many different empires. For Sasuke Uchiha, son of the richest man in the Legion of Invictus who just passed selection for the Special Forces, he's got the universe in front of him, one event changes it all. Rated M for language, violence, and later chapters.
1. Selection

**Part 1 – Selection**

In 2075, Humanity discovered the ability to instantaneously jump from one side of the universe to the other by harvesting Dark Energy which supercharges a ship's engines, and launches it at mind-melting speeds.

This discovery led to the rise of a vast empire that spanned as far as they could go.

It also led to the discovery of many different cultures and alien species which led to the vast empires.

In 2349, there were four of the most powerful that rule the known cosmos.

The Legion of Invictus is an expansive multi-cultural empire of citizens bound by the laws of the founding fathers of their society who were their ancestors from Earth. The governing body of The Legion as everyone calls it is a selected group of many different species that decrees the laws of the lands.

Another of these empires if Aarcadius an empire that's government is runs by the powerful businesses that create everything in their empire from cars, to guns, to shoes, even starships all the way up to bombs.

The third empire is Dastian, an empire that doesn't concentrate on its military, they instead concentrate of politics and keeping their economy up and running. They decided to this because in 2100 their economy took a huge downturn, leaving sixty eight percent of their population unemployed.

Finally there's the Blood Redemption Disciples or BRD for short. The BRD is an iron-fisted dictatorship that believes in very strict rules and harsh, brutal punishment for those that don't obey. Their leader is a blood-thirsty dictator known as Orochimaru whose actions has led to the death of millions of his own people.

The BRD hates everything the Legion of Invictus stands for, and like Germany funding the Bolshevik Revolution, the BRD decided to fund revolutions against governments that supports the Legion of Invictus.

One young sergeant ready for selection in the Legion of Invictus's Special Forces, the United Operations Force hated the BRD with a passion almost like it was his life mission to wipe the empire off the face of the earth.

He didn't know what destiny had in store for him.

Six-foot-four nineteen year old Caucasian/Japanese male Sasuke lined up along with his other recruits dressed in the low-grade armor built for light infantry.

The armor was nothing but armored boots, hip and groin protection armor, a small chest-plate, armor-plated gloves, and combined shoulder and neck armor.

"Alright maggots listen up," Staff Sergeant Michael Gorman said as he walked in front of the line of recruits, "You're all here because you think you have what it takes to become our empire's best! I'm here to tell you the selection committee thinks you are! To me its bullshit unless you can prove me wrong," he then stood at the end of the line, "Are you going to prove me wrong recruits?"

"Sir yes sir!" They all exclaimed.

"I can't hear you," SS Gorman said, "Are you going to prove me wrong!?"

"SIR YES SIR!" They all yelled.

"Good," SS Gorman said, "Let's go to the training grounds! Mount up!"

The recruits leaned down, picked up their backpacks, and marched toward the drop-ship.

The drop ship was made out of white-metal and had two windows in the cockpit.

The training grounds for selection was an oval-shaped planet called Telos.

The entire planet is divided into six different regions, a city, a forest, an ice-land, a volcanic region, a desert region, and a grass-land.

Once the recruits were about to be over the drop-zone, Gorman started explaining their equipment, "Alright, listen up," he exclaimed, "Your packs contain all you need to survive the crossing of the planet! You have survival knives, you have MREs, you have chocolate bars, you have wire, you duct tape, and you have bandages. There will be five other squads on the planet! Your objective, like there's is to survive until you get to your extraction zone on the other side of the planet! There is a little red button located on the right strap of your packs, if you've had enough, all you need to do is hit that button, and say, 'I'm through', and we'll pull you out. That button is for quitting or emergencies only! Did you get that?"

"Sir yes sir!" The recruits exclaimed.

"Good," Gorman said as he looked out the window, "We're above the drop-zone! All stand," the recruits stood up, "Mount up," the recruits attached their bungee-cords to the mount above them, "Equipment check," the recruits checked the backpack of the recruit in front of them, "Sound off!"

"Five ok!" six-foot-two African-Invictus male Martin Astrid exclaimed.

"Four ok!" five-foot-two Caucasian-Invictus female Megan Moro exclaimed.

"Three ok!" five-foot-ten Hispanic-Invictus male Logan Paul exclaimed.

"Two ok!" six-foot-one Oriental-Invictus male Damarcus Chen exclaimed.

"One ok!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"Are we happy?" Gorman asked.

"Hell yes!" The five exclaimed.

"Standby," Gorman exclaimed as the side door opened, "Go! Go! Go!"

The five recruits jumped off the side of the drop-ship, and free-fell for about five thousand feet before the bungee cords they were attached to snapped, gently lowering them the remaining five hundred feet to the ground.

The recruits unhooked from their cords, and scrambled for cover, Telos might be on the verge of being a dead planet because it's only home to several gangs of low-tech thugs that preferred to use brute strength instead of brains that will kill just for the fun of it.

And a big drop-ship hovering above the ground is a dead-give away of your position.

The area Sasuke and the other recruits were released into was the city area.

The city area of Telos was once a thriving urban environment, police patrolling the streets, children running left and right playing, and enjoying life. That was before the cataclysmic event known as The Event that left the planet almost completely uninhabitable. The Event was a massive earthquake that cracked the volcanic section of the planet almost in half.

As the five recruits dashed into cover, several members of the Anarchy Gang, the primary gang on Telos that wanted to control everything.

The gang primarily uses anything they can find as armor, old TVs, radios, car parts, even parts of the crumbling buildings.

As the gangsters looked around, the recruits hid in the ruins of the old buildings, looking at the thugs as they walked around the area, searching for them.

"They have small-arms," Logan whispered as the recruits looked down at the thugs from a window on the second floor of a ruined factory, "We can use those."

"Not now," Sasuke said, "We need to get them all at once if we're going to take them out."

"Spread out you fools," the leader said in a deep, threatening voice, "Find them!"

"Now's our chance," Sasuke said as he slid down the debris, "Follow my lead."

The five thugs spread out among a fifty-foot radius, searching for the recruits.

One of the thugs was walking down an alleyway, he was wearing a pair of work boots, jeans, a plaid shirt, with a broken TV for a helmet.

As he was walking, his feet were pulled out from underneath him, sending him to the ground, as he was about to jump up, someone jumped on his back, unsheathed a twelve-inch knife, and drove it through the back of the thug's neck.

In a separate alley, one thug dressed in a pair of steel-plated boots with brown shorts, a white tank-top, and wearing a set of antenna wires stuck inside his skull.

As he was walking down an alley, he heard a brick hit the side of a building, as he went to investigate, he was grabbed from behind, and stabbed four times in the arm-pit.

The armpit might seem unimportant, but there is actually a very important vein in the arm-pit that circulates blood from the heart to the arm, if you cut that the heart is going to pump blood until you bleed out.

Two others who decided to search together were entering a building when they were both grabbed, thrown head-long into the wall next to them, and then stabbed twice in the chest.

The final one was walking through the doorway to one of the buildings when something dropped down behind him, as he turned around, the next thing he saw was a brick coming straight at his face.

The brick made contact with his head, knocking him backwards, and sending him to the ground with a thud.

After he pushed himself up, a short female came at him with a knife, the thug swung at the girl, making contact with her skull, knocking her backwards.

As the thug raised his M3A1 Greece Gun to fire, there was a clicking sound from behind him, and a shot rang out.

As the thug fell, Megan looked up, and saw Sasuke standing there, holding an M4A1 Thompson Submachine gun, the barrel smoking.

"You good," Sasuke asked as he held out his hand to Megan who accepted the hand, helping her stand up.

"Yea," Megan said as she picked up the M3A1, and both she and Sasuke walked outside to see the rest of the recruits who all had weapons.

"We good?" Sasuke asked.

"Yep," Martin said, "We should get moving: we've got a long way to go."

"Alright," Sasuke said, "Let's move."

As the team made their way across the city into the desert region, a small group of Anarchy thugs found their dead comrades, and set off after Sasuke and his team.

The team walked in almost single-file behind Sasuke heading toward a large rock that looked like a single flat-top mountain in the Grand Canyon back on Earth.

*Important survival tip when stranded in a desert: if you need to find your way out of the desert by having to walk long distances, find a natural land-mark, and just walk straight toward it.

That's exactly what the team did, keeping their weapons at the ready, they walked straight toward the mountain.

Once they reached the side of the mountain, the team wrapped duct tape around their hands, and began climbing.

They reached the top of the mountain the second it was night-fall.

"Alright," Sasuke said as he sat against the fallen tree, and put his backpack down, "Everyone do a magazine-check, and take inventory."

Sasuke checked the magazine on the Tommy-Gun, only one bullet fired, one spare thirty-round magazine, fully loaded, not exactly the ideal conditions to take on an army, but it would do.

Martin had a Kar-98, five rounds in the chamber, plus fifteen spare bullets.

Logan had picked up a Winchester Model 1912, six rounds in the tube, and eighteen spare shells.

Damarcus managed to snag a M79 'Blooper' Grenade Launcher, one round, plus four spare grenades.

The M79 was used in very high numbers during Vietnam, even though it was highly successful, it became known as the 'Blooper' to the U.S. troops that used it.

Megan of course had snagged the M3A1 Greece Gun with half a magazine, and a spare magazine.

The team gathered up some dead wood, and made a fire.

The team then cooked the MREs they had together to try and coax some good flavor out of them.

As I might have said before in a previous story, MREs are the worst things you will ever put in your mouth, and some military soldiers actually try to mix different MREs together to get better taste, with questionable success.

However, cooking several altogether in the same pot over a fire might be a better idea.

After eating, the team took some time to get some rest while Sasuke and Logan stayed up, and doctored the fire all night.

"Amazing night," Logan said as he laid back on his backpack which he used for a pillow.

"Yep," Sasuke said as he poked at the fire with a long stick he had.

"Tell me something Sasuke," Logan said, "Why'd the only living blood-son of the wealthiest man in the Legion of Invictus join the Invictus Army?"

"Felt like it was my calling to serve," Sasuke said, "After my big brother was killed, I was kind of lost, looking for something to believe in. The Army seemed to have structure, so when I enlisted at sixteen, I immediately found what I had been searching for after my brother died."

"Never one for stories like that," Logan said, "But I can relate, my grandfather was killed in a surprise raid on an Invictus outpost by Blood Raiders."

"Oh yea," Sasuke said as he leaned back against the wood.

"You know we're being followed right?" Logan asked.

"Yep," Sasuke said, "We'll be passing into the volcanic region pretty soon. Beyond that is the ice land region, and beyond that is the forest region, that's where our extraction is. They'll never catch up with us."

"Maybe not." Logan said.

The next morning, Sasuke and the other recruits set off for the volcanic region.

Once they arrived on the edge of the volcanic region, you could literally smell the Methane gas pouring out of the volcanos, some so big you could see them all the way on both sides of the area, and some so small you could crush them with a barefoot, and not feel a thing

As the five recruits continued on, they had the gas-masks attached to the neck of their jackets pulled over their mouths.

The gas-masks their used were very similar to the ones used by advanced infantry divisions in the Invictus Army that work by cycling un-breathable gasses and air, and filtering it into breathable air.

The problem with the methane in the volcanic region is that you can't fire a weapon in the methane because the explosion from the gunpowder in the bullet coming out of the barrel will melt the bullet before it would reach the target.

As the recruits were marching across the land, there was a scream, they looked behind them, and the thugs they thought wouldn't catch up with them was racing toward them.

"Run for it!" Sasuke exclaimed.

The recruits ran across the volcanic region before arriving at the Split, the area of the volcanic region that was split almost in half by The Event.

Sasuke looked around, and after a few seconds, he saw a simple land-bridge.

"There," Sasuke exclaimed as he pointed at the bridge.

The recruits crossed the bridge very carefully, once they reached the other side of the bridge, Sasuke spoke again, "Let's knock the bridge down," he said, "Use the butt-stock of your weapons."

Sasuke, Martin, Logan, and Damarcus repeatedly wacked at the bridge with the butt-stock of their rifles, which at first was a bunch of thumping.

"Ah fuck this," Damarcus said, "We're getting nowhere."

"They're coming!" Megan exclaimed.

"Damarcus, when we're far enough out, shoot this thing," Sasuke said, "Let's move!"

After the team ran for several feet, they stopped, turned around, and Damarcus fired, the grenade of course has no gun-powder behind the charge so when the grenade came flying out the end of the Blooper, there was no explosion, at least not until the grenade made impact.

The grenade struck the bridge just as the thugs were attempting to cross, and the resulting explosion launched the thugs backwards, and caused all the methane around the Split to explode violently.

The resulting fire cause the recruits to shield their eyes, and make a run for their lives.

As the recruits were running across the volcanic region, Logan stepped the wrong way, and his entire foot to about an inch below his knee sunk into a small volcano.

Logan screamed in pain, causing Sasuke to stop as the fire was coming at them.

Sasuke ran back to Logan who was stuck in the small volcano.

"Get out of here," Logan said, "I'm worthless."

"Shut up," Sasuke said as he yanked Logan out of the volcano, everything from an inch below his knee down was gone.

"Is it bad?" Logan asked.

"It's glorious," Sasuke exclaimed as he heaved Logan onto his shoulders, "Grab your weapon, and hold on!"

Sasuke ran across the volcanic region with Logan, following the fellow recruits.

After reaching the edge of the volcanic region, the force of the fire sent the four standing recruits diving face-first into the snow.

The recruits pushed themselves up, and brushed themselves off.

After gathering up their weapons, the recruits grabbed their weapons, and continued across the snow, with Damarcus carrying Logan while holding his M79 in one hand.

The recruits walked toward a large mountain that was about the same shape and height of the one back in the desert.

When moving across any place that's covered in snow, and you don't know which way you're going, it's the same principle as the desert, just find a natural landmark, and head straight toward it.

The recruits kept moving toward the mountain before arriving, and finding a single cave.

After squeezing through the small opening in the side of the mountain, the team entered into a small area about the size of a child's bedroom.

"We'll rest here tonight," Sasuke said, "Let's get set-up."

As the crew set up their gear, Megan took a look at Logan's wound.

"Is it bad?" Logan asked.

"Not as bad as you think," Megan said, "Let's get you a replacement."

"I'll call it in," Sasuke said as he hit the button on the strap of his pack, "Command come in."

"Command here," SS Gorman said over the other line, "What's up recruits? Had enough?"

"Fuck that noise," Sasuke said, "We need a replacement limb. Male, left leg, and a replacement boot."

"Got you," SS Gorman said, "Standby for med-drop."

After a couple minutes, there was the sound of metal hitting the ground, Sasuke looked outside, and there was a metal canister lying erect in the ground.

Sasuke brought the canister inside the cave, and opened it, revealing a synthetic leg, and a spare boot to replace the one that melted off Logan's foot when his foot melted.

"Alright," Sasuke said as he placed the synthetic-limb against the area where Logan's foot was gone, "This is going to hurt like hell, but it's better than one of us carrying you all the way to the extraction-point."

"Let's get it over with," Logan said as Megan placed a towel in his mouth to bite down on.

"Ok," Sasuke said as he hit the _Merge_ button.

Four hydraulic grips came out of the leg, gripping onto the area below Logan's knee, and the next second, Logan screamed in pain as the small drill burrowed inside Logan's bone, and merged with his leg.

After several seconds of excruciating pain, Logan relaxed as the pain subsided, "God that hurt." Logan said.

"Ok," Sasuke said, "The instructions tell me to do a few tests. Now what I want you to do now is to flex your toes," Logan flexed his metallic toes, "Ok, now I'm going to hit a few basic controls," Sasuke hit a few buttons, and after about several seconds of a system check, everything was in the green, "Ok," Sasuke then slid the boot over Logan's new synthetic boot, "You're good."

"Thanks," Logan said as Megan offered him a bit of chocolate which he accepted.

"Anytime," Sasuke said as he slapped Logan on the shoulder, "What are fellow recruits for?"

"Never thought a rich-boy like you'd be interested in helping a middle-class son of a bitch like me." Logan said.

"We're all the same," Sasuke said as he sat against the cave wall, "Not the first time I've been called a rich-boy."

"Hey, that's not a bad codename," Logan said, "RichBoy."

"I like it," Sasuke said, "RichBoy."

"We going to just sit here?" Martin asked.

"To dangerous to walk a blizzard in the middle of the night," Sasuke said, "Rule one of ice-land survival."

"K, RichBoy." Martin said.

"It's growing on me." Sasuke said.

The next morning, the recruits picked up their weapons, and walked off in the direction of the forest, and their extraction point.

Keeping the mountain behind them, they continued on, soon finding themselves on the edge of the forest.

"Alright," Sasuke said as they crossed into the forest, "We've had water only once, and that was yesterday, "Grab your canteens, and take a drink."

After taking a drink, the recruits continued on.

Pretty soon they arrived at their extraction point, and Damarcus set off a flare, signaling the drop-ship.

Thirty seconds after the flare was sent up a shot rang out, and the recruits dropped to the ground as they were fired upon.

Sasuke peaked out from behind cover, and about twenty two Anarchy thugs came out of the canopy.

"We got hostile contact," Sasuke said, "Return fire."

Martin readied the Kar-98, took aim, and concentrated as he fired.

The bullet shattered the glass of one thug's TV helmet, and caused blood to explode all over the inside of the screen.

As Martin pulled back on the bolt, Megan fired two controlled bursts from the M3A1, the bullets killed two thugs.

Sasuke managed to kill about five by the time the drop-ship came in for a landing.

"Alright," Sasuke said as he looked at the recruits, and reloaded the Tommy-Gun, "Reload your weapons," after the recruits reloaded their guns, Sasuke continued, "When I say so, stand up, empty your clips, and run for your life!"

"Ready." Martin said.

"Alright," Sasuke said, "Ready? NOW!"

The recruits all stood up, and opened fire on the thugs, once their clips were empty, they turned toward the drop-ship, and ran.

As soon as the recruits were halfway to the drop-ship, the Anarchy thugs stood up, and fired.

With bullets whistling all around, the recruits dove into the side of the drop-ship, and took cover as it took off.

Once they were clear of the atmosphere, the recruits relaxed.

Heading back toward the station was no picnic either, they were only half done with the final stage of their selection.

When they arrived at the station, they were ordered to drop their bags, and march to the holding cells.

Once there, they were ushered into a holding-cell, and handcuffed to a chair.

A holographic brute that looked like an Anarchy thug with a TV over his head appeared in front of Sasuke.

"I'll ask you now," he said, "Why'd you attack our home?"

"Uchiha, Sasuke," Sasuke began, "Sergeant, 19-1-19-21-11-5."

The thug punched Sasuke across the face.

He asked again, Sasuke gave him the same reply, name, rank, and serial number.

This was like this for twelve hours until the hologram went off, and Sasuke was given water.

Sasuke was bleeding out of his nose, he had a black-eye, a cut lip, and a cut over his eyebrow.

The next morning it was the same for another twelve hours until the hologram went in for the killing-blow, and it was suddenly cut off.

Sasuke had a dislocated jaw, a cracked rib, a black eye, two cuts on his face, one large cut on his chest, and a bloody nose.

The next minute, Gorman walked in, and knelt in front of Sasuke, "I've thrown everything I could at your Uchiha. And you just took it on the chin, and kept going," Gorman began as he walked around the chair once, "As you know, the Spec Ops division of the Invictus Army is controlled by the council," Gorman then stood behind Sasuke, and knelt down to the chains that held Sasuke in place, "And you've impressed both them and me, you've shown me your loyalty to the Invictus Army is greater than any physical pain you can endure," Gorman unlocked the chains, and helped Sasuke to his feet, "Congratulations, because you belong to the council now."

Sasuke was helped, by Gorman into the med-bay where Martin, Logan, Damarcus, and Megan were getting treatment for their wounds.

Once Sasuke had everything that was broken and cut on him repaired, Sasuke and his fellow recruits were given new dress uniforms.

A pair of black leather boots, black TRU-SPEC 24-7 pants (for Megan it was a black skirt), a white short-sleeve TRU-SPEC tee-shirt, a special black dress-coat with the insignia of the Invictus Army's Spec Ops division on it which was the image of two olive branches that surrounded a skull, and a black beret with the same insignia on the crest.

As Sasuke, Logan, Damarcus, Martin, and Megan stood at attention in their new uniforms, SS Gorman walked in front of them.

"Well soldiers," Gorman said, "I must admit, I didn't expect this many of you to be here standing here in front of me. All five of you are the only ones out of your class that have aced the written exam, passed the hand-to-hand combat training, crushed the physical exam down on that planet, and passed the psychological test. You are the only five to not give up or be killed by these tests. For this, I commend you all. You've all done well, and I am now officially giving you what you deserve. A place among our Empire's greatest, and a one hundred and sixty eight hour leave until you are called to serve your empire."

"Thank you sir!" The five exclaimed.

"Good work men," Gorman said, "Grab your things, you leave begins the second you step on the surface of your home planet."

As the five soldiers were packing up, Logan asked, "So Sasuke, where are you going on leave?"

"I'm going home," Sasuke said, "Haven't seen my adopted sister, my little brother, or my parents in three years."

"Same here," Megan said, "I'm heading by to Aquarius. I want to get into some swimming."

"I'm going home also." Martin said.

"So am I." Logan said.

"And me as well." Damarcus said.

The five Spec Ops soldiers walked off, ready to face the Universes.

As the shuttle taking Sasuke home to his home-world of Metropolis took off, he wasn't too sure about how his parents would react to him being in the Special Forces now.

_Sasuke's now a Spec-Ops soldier, and is heading home to face his parents, how should they react?_


	2. On Leave

**Part 2 – On Leave**

The next few hours of the trip, Sasuke caught up on some much-needed sleep, he didn't know how, but over the last three years he had been working recon for the Invictus Army.

He was pretty sure as soon as he signed up, his father would have paid someone off to stick him in a desk job, but then again, bribing anyone from a Private in the army to a Legion of Invictus Councilor was a capital offense, punishable by death.

Sasuke's father was the most powerful and successful businessmen in the entire Legion of Invictus with an estimated net-worth of three hundred and seventy five billion credits.

Uchiha Enterprises makes everything in the Legion of Invictus from eating utensils a citizen of the Legion of Invictus uses to eat, to the guns the Invictus Army uses, and all the way up to the multi-billion credit starships that can carry an entire army of troops to the front lines of a war and take massive amounts of damage for a long period of time before firing back.

As soon as Sasuke arrived on his home-planet of Metropolis, he retrieved his bag, and stepped off the shuttle to be greeted by the familiar sights and sounds of his home planet.

Sasuke walked over to the garage, and waved his hand over the scanner, his car was still there.

It was a Lamborghini _Spartano_ painted gold first but then painted red to make the color pop.

The front-half of the car was modeled after the 2012 Lamborghini Aventador, the back-half was modeled after the 1970 Dodge Challenger, and the suicide-doors and interior was modeled after the 2013 Lykan Hypersport.

As Sasuke touched the door-knob, the door came open, Sasuke put his bag in the seat next to him, sat in the driver's seat, and started up the car by placing the key he took from the scanner into the place where the sunglasses-holder would be mounted, and tapped the start-button on the touch-screen on the area below the radio.

As the _Spartano_ roared to life, Sasuke leaned back, and exhaled slowly, he was home, for a week mind you, but he was home.

After pulling out, Sasuke took off toward his family's mansion, he hadn't seen his little brother David, his adopted sister Jenny, or his parents in three years, how'd they react to him being back, and what would they do when he told them he was now fully-fledged Special Forces?

Sasuke thought about that as he drove through the center of downtown Metropolis, not a lot had changed during his three-year absence, the city still had that feel of New York mixed with Paris and Shanghai, he also saw that the city committee had decided to keep that touch of an ancient middle-eastern city mixed in with the American/French/Chinese flavor.

When he arrived back at his parent's house, he placed his hand on the scanner outside the gate, which scanned his hand, and after a few seconds, the scanner said, "Identity confirmed, welcome back Sasuke. You've been gone for three years, two months, twenty eight days, and four hours."

The door opened, allowing Sasuke to pull the car into the driveway.

Sasuke got out of the car, picked up his pack, and walked into the gardens in the front yard.

As he entered, he saw that his mother and sister had kept up the gardens.

He took some time to admire the garden before seeing his mother, Mikoto Uchiha tending to the roses in a long grey dress with her standard sandals and wearing a florally-decorated ascot wrapped around her head.

"Mom." Sasuke said.

Mikoto dropped her things, and turned around to see her military son standing there in a full black uniform carrying his pack.

"Sasuke," Mikoto said as she dropped what she was doing, pulled off her ascot, and ran over to embrace Sasuke.

Mikoto ran into Sasuke with such force, it almost knocked him over.

"Hey mom." Sasuke said.

"What is this," Mikoto asked as she pulled away from her son to see his black uniform, "New Uniform?"

"Let's talk about this some other time," Sasuke said, "Are Jenny and David around?"

"They should be getting back from school any minute," Mikoto said, "And so should dad, go inside."

After going inside, Sasuke went into his room, and placed his things down on the bed.

His parents hadn't changed his room at all, so he was happy with that.

A few minutes after putting his things away, he heard the engine of a Bluebird school bus pulling up in front of the house.

Sasuke's sixteen year old adopted little sister Jenny Uchiha, a five-foot-five Caucasian female with long blonde hair and blue eyes stepped off the bus with David, Sasuke's seven year old little brother, a four-foot-seven Caucasian/Japanese male with short-cut spikey black hair and onyx eyes, just like Sasuke's.

"Hey mom," Jenny and David said as they walked up to Mikoto, and hugged them.

"Hey kids," Mikoto said, "Listen, there's a surprise waiting for you inside."

Sasuke backed out of his room.

Jenny and David entered the house to see nothing, they then saw something hurry into their father's study, and went to investigate.

As they entered, they saw someone dressed in a black uniform browsing the shelves.

"Hello?" Jenny asked.

"Hello," Sasuke said as he turned around.

"Sasuke," the both exclaimed as they ran at their big brother.

Sasuke was knocked back against the bookcase as he chuckled, and hugged them both.

"You're back," Jenny said, "When'd you get back?"

"Not half an hour ago," Sasuke said, "Come on, we have a lot to catch up on."

The three walked over to their father's cigar-sofa right as their father, Fugaku Uchiha walked into the room.

"Sasuke." Fugaku said as Sasuke stood up.

"Dad." Sasuke said.

Fugaku walked over to Sasuke, "My son," he said, "A Sergeant in the Legion of Invictus Army. I'm proud of you son."

Sasuke and Fugaku embraced while Jenny and David smiled.

That night, everyone was sitting down to a dinner of Aquarius Sea Bass cooked in specialty apples from the gardens of the planet New Eden, steaks from Earth, and grapes from the same planet the apples were from.

"So what's up with the uniform change?" Jenny asked.

"You mean the color change?" Sasuke asked as he ate.

"Yes," Jenny said, "You transfer departments or something?"

"Actually yes." Sasuke said.

"Really," Mikoto said, "To what?"

"Special Activities." Sasuke said.

Fugaku nearly sucked down his entire drink when he heard the words, special and activities in the same sentence.

"Special Activities?" Fugaku asked.

"Yes," Sasuke said, "I passed selection."

After a very quiet dinner, Sasuke was in his room that night when his father leaned against the doorway.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked.

"To know if you were serious about this transition from Intelligence to the Invictus Army's Special Forces." Fugaku said.

"Dead serious," Sasuke said, "I passed three months and five weeks of Selection at the head of my class. I'm not going to waste that training."

"You're only going to stay in it for a few years right?" Fugaku asked.

"I'm going to stay in until I'm no longer needed," Sasuke said, "When I'm no longer needed I'll leave."

"I'm not happy about this," Fugaku said, "But I'm proud that you take pride in your empire."

Sasuke turned around to see his father leave, that wasn't the response Sasuke was expecting, but at least he got a response.

The next morning Sasuke decided to go for a swim in his family's pool.

As Sasuke removed his white tee-shirt, the various females that usually stalked him watched, open-mouthed as Sasuke's powerful muscles rippled as he pulled the thin cloth shirt over his head, revealing six tightly drawn, chiseled abs, and there were several scars that crossed his chest, arms, and back, probably from the battles he'd been in.

Sasuke dove into the pool, the water split as his hands entered the water first, as the rest of him entered, and he resurfaced, many of the girls would have torn the gates down if it hadn't been made of titanium.

After about half an hour of being in the pool, Sasuke received a call on his off-duty communicator which looked like the communicator from the Star Trek franchise (specially customized for him by Uchiha Enterprises).

Sasuke flipped open the communicator, and hit the green button, "Uchiha." Sasuke said.

"Sasuke," Gorman said over the other line.

"Sergeant Gorman," Sasuke asked, "What are you doing on this line?"

"I want to call and congratulate you," Gorman said, "I just received word that you were assigned to Team 7."

"Team 7," Sasuke asked, "As in the Ninjas? That Team 7?"

"The very same," Gorman said, "Your new uniform will arrive soon, and by the end of your leave you'll will be on the transport to Tarshish 3."

"Thanks," Sasuke said, "I'll make preparations."

Sasuke sat down in the chair next to the pool, he was both excited, and scared out of his mind.

Team 7 was the best of the best, and their commanding officer had the highest expectations from his men, and now it fell to Sasuke to meet those high expectations of absolutely zero failure.

That night, Sasuke laid awake in his bed, looking up at the ceiling for several hours before deciding to go on a drive.

Sasuke walked out to his _Spartano_, and as he opened the gate, Jenny came running out the front of the house, "Sasuke," Jenny exclaimed as she ran out to him, "Where are you going?"

"On a drive." Sasuke said.

"Can I come?" Jenny asked.

"I don't know," Sasuke said, "It's late, and you have school…"

"Please?" Jenny asked as she grabbed Sasuke's hand.

"Oh, alright," Sasuke said, then pointed at Jenny, "But put on something warm."

Jenny ran back into the house, and came out dressed in a pair of high-heels, jeans, and a long-sleeve white and light green striped shirt.

After driving for a little while, Sasuke pulled up in front of the Uchiha Enterprises Office Building, the tallest building in all of Metropolis.

As Sasuke and Jenny rode the elevator to their father's office which was the executive suite at the top of the office building.

When they entered the main suite, Sasuke walked over to his father's desk, and picked up the crystalized-heat name-plate that had his father's name on it.

Jenny looked over at her brother as he set the name-plate down, then walked over to the old family picture, a picture of a forty year-old Fugaku Uchiha, a thirty-nine year old Mikoto Uchiha, with their twenty year old son Itachi Uchiha, their fifteen year old son Sasuke, their newly adopted twelve year old foster daughter Jenny Uchiha, and their four year old son David Uchiha.

A small tear came to Sasuke's eye, it was only a year after the picture was taken that twenty-one year old Itachi Uchiha who was working for the Invictus Center of Intelligence, the Legion of Invictus's spy agency was killed.

Itachi was working for the C.O.I. as a double agent, and was working inside the Blood Redemption Disciples' Military, the Disciples Defense Legion.

Itachi was working on the front lines trying to capture evidence of genocide by the Defense Legion.

And apparently while trying to get evidence, he was killed in a Defense Legion raid on a "Valuable Defense Legion military target".

Sasuke could never prove it, but he knew that the head of the Disciples, Orochimaru was somehow involved.

Jenny joined Sasuke over by the window, and saw the picture in her elder foster-brother's hands, "I miss him to." Jenny said.

Sasuke and Jenny spent the rest of the night at Uchiha Enterprises, while Jenny fell asleep on the couch in her father's office, Sasuke sat in his father's chair, just looking out the window at Metropolis as the rain started to pour with the moonlight illuminating Sasuke's face through the window while the streaks of rain on the windshield casted several shadows.

Sasuke spent the following week waiting before receiving a package.

Sasuke brought the package into the living room where his brother was.

"Hey Sasuke," David said, "What's that?"

"Something from Command," Sasuke said as he opened the box, and opened it to reveal a gold-titanium belt with the symbol of his team on the belt.

"What's that?" David asked.

"I think it's my armor," Sasuke said as he slid the belt around his waist, and attached the clip to the small knot in the belt.

"What now?" David asked.

"I don't know," Sasuke asked as he looked down at the belt.

"That's a nice symbol," David said as he tapped on the symbol on the face of the belt which moved underneath his finger.

The belt hissed, and soon Sasuke's entire body was covered in a black, spandex-like material, then ribbed armor appeared on his chest, the armor them spread down his leg, over his groin area, then his feet, it also spread around his neck, to his shoulders, down his arms, hands, and then came up, and covered his face.

A small slit appeared in the mask, and it glowed red, allowing Sasuke to see.

"Wow," Sasuke said as he looked at his hand, "This is amazing."

"You look cool," David said, "Like a comic book hero."

When Sasuke's parents came home, they saw Sasuke dressed in his new armor.

"Hello Mr. Ninja," Mikoto said when she saw her son.

"Hey mom," Sasuke said as the mask and hood retreated back into itself, revealing Sasuke's head.

"Someone's going to be doing some major fighting," Fugaku said as he tapped his knuckles against the shoulder-plate of Sasuke's armor.

Sasuke chuckled, his father had no idea what kind of heat he was about to get into, with the amount of heat Team 7 had on them, he would be lucky if he came out of this deployment with only three or four bullet-wounds.

At the end of the week, Sasuke was scared out of his mind.

Sasuke thought about arriving on Tarshish 3 as he got dressed in his uniform.

As he put on his pants, he found out his mother had dry-cleaned and pressed.

When he was tying his boots on, he discovered by the smell that his brother spit-polished them, with nothing but spit.

His white shirt wasn't messed with, but as he slid on his jacket, he realized his sister had polished the sergeant strips that were pinned onto the white collar.

As he put on his Beret, he realized his father had the patch on his beret professionally cleaned and re-stitched.

Sasuke packed up his things, and before leaving, he reached into the top drawer of his dresser, and pulled out something of his that was special, a solid-gold ring that belonged to his grandfather.

Sasuke didn't want to lose it so he slid it onto a chain which he slid around his neck.

He picked up his things, and walked out of his room, taking time to take one good look at it before he closed the door.

As Sasuke walked downstairs, David and Jenny looked up, and saw their older brother coming downstairs dressed in his uniform and belt.

Sasuke walked up to them, and as they hugged him, Sasuke tried his best not to fight back the tears in his eyes.

He walked out the door to see his mother and father waiting for him by a limo waiting to take him to the spaceport.

Sasuke walked up to Mikoto who hugged him, one arm around the neck, the other around his shoulder, tears streaked her cheeks, Sasuke kissed her on the forehead before moving onto his father who embraced his son.

"I love you son," Fugaku said as he held back his tears.

"I love you to dad," Sasuke said as he wrapped his free arm around his dad's back.

"Now," Fugaku said as he straightened Sasuke's uniform, "Now, you have to get on to your job."

"Thanks for the limo dad." Sasuke said.

As Sasuke entered the limo, he felt even sadder as it pulled away from his house.

Arriving at the spaceport, Sasuke disembarked to get swarmed by paparazzi.

"Mr. Uchiha, Mr. Uchiha," they all said in unison.

"How does it feel to be Special Forces now Mr. Uchiha?" One asked.

"After this are you planning to start a political career Mr. Uchiha?" Another asked.

"How does it feel to leave your family?" Another asked.

"Do you have any idea where you're going Mr. Uchiha?" Another asked.

As Sasuke pushed his way passed them, into the spaceport, they followed him, they kept flashing their cameras, but in training, Sasuke leaned not to react.

When Sasuke walked over to the Military Departures, the Military guard asked to see Sasuke's identification, Sasuke pointed at the insignia on his belt, and the guard instantly let him through.

As the paparazzi tried to push their way passed the guard, he cocked his L85A1, and fired several warning shots into the floor in front of them.

Sasuke smiled a little bit, and continued onto the ship.

As he climbed the platform, he looked back at the spaceport, and smiled, he wouldn't be seeing this place for a while.

Sasuke walked to his room, and as he set his bag down, the ship finished loading, everyone was onboard, and the ship took off.

When the transport ship cleared the atmosphere, Sasuke looked back at Metropolis, and waved goodbye before the ship jumped into hyper-speed.

_Sasuke's first deployment as Special Forces, and that must be scary…_


	3. New Assignment

**Part 3 – Deployment**

As Sasuke walked around the transport for the remaining week of the trip, the color of his uniform was defiantly getting him attention, many of the men gave him respectful looks while the women gave him lustful looks.

One day, he was sitting in the mess-hall, he felt a pair of eyes on him: he looked up, and saw a table full of female soldiers who were looking at him with smiles that were full of desire.

Sasuke continued on with the rest of the trip to Tarshish 3 in silence.

When they ship dropped out of hyper-speed, the troops lined up in the hanger with Sasuke in front, "Soldiers," Brigadier General Michael David Ambrose exclaimed as he stood on the wing of the transport-shuttle, "We are currently in orbit around Tarshish 3, I'm not going to lie, the situation down there is very bleak, but we are here because the Legion of Invictus needs us here. While you are here you job is to back up these guys," Brigadier General Ambrose pointed at Sasuke, "Do any of you know who these men in the black uniform are?"

"SIR YES SIR!" They all yelled.

"These black uniformed soldiers are our Empire's finest," Brigadier General Ambrose said, "Black-Uniform, do you believe in these soldiers?"

"YES SIR!" Sasuke yelled.

"Good," Brigadier General Ambrose said, "Because I don't. They screw up once, and they'll end up dead! Same goes for you! All might not survive, but if this Black-Uniform has faith in you so do I! Keep your heads above water, and watch your backs! We are here to win a war! Do not disappoint me! WILL WE FAIL?"

"SIR NO SIR!" Everyone yelled.

"Good," Brigadier General Ambrose said, "Grab your gear! Mount up! Stow your shit! And get ready!"

The troops saluted General Ambrose, and stepped down as the troops walked to their assigned shuttles.

Sasuke walked down the isle of shuttles to his shuttle which had a single Turan standing inside the main area.

The chrome-metal bricks that had a skull with a knife stuck in them attached to the lapels on his jacket identified him as a Lieutenant, and the insignia on his belt identified him as a member of Team 7.

Turans are a very noble species of alien, standing at a minimum height of six feet tall from the time they turn into an adolescent with a crab-like exoskeleton, the men of the species primarily become front-line soldiers, while the women primarily go for intelligence agencies like the C.O.I., but becoming a soldier is optional if they choose. But one distinguishing feature all Turans have is that they have a boney fin running down the back of their heads, and ending at the bottom of their necks.

As Sasuke was walking up the steps, the soldier disengaged his armor, a high sign of respect coming from a Turan, as he stood in front of the seven foot tall Turan, he saluted him.

The Turan saluted him back, "Sergeant," the Turan said as he held out his hand.

"Sir," Sasuke said as he shook the Turan's hand.

"None of that sir shit kid," the Turan said as he slapped Sasuke on the shoulder, and guided him to his seat as the transport shuttle lifted into the air, "Call me Grim. Welcome to Team 7."

As the transport shuttle entered the atmosphere, Sasuke realized the pilot was only thirteen, and Grim handed Sasuke his new side-arm, an Uchiha Enterprises Arms M1911, whose design, modeled after the Smith and Wesson semi-auto M1911 .45, "An M1911," Sasuke said, "Nice."

"That's made by your father's company right?" Grim asked.

"Yep," Sasuke said as he slid his M1911 into his belt, "No big deal though."

"No big deal," Grim asked, "Your family's name is laser-printed on everything. Shit, every woman in the entire Legion of Invictus wants you as their husband."

"I know," Sasuke said as the shuttle started to shake.

"The shaking's quite normal." Grim said.

The entire ship then shook violently, and one shake sent them to the floor, "Is that normal?" Sasuke asked.

"Not by a long-shot," Grim said as he crawled up to the cabin, "What the fuck is going on?"

"I'm sorry sir," the pilot said, "We seem to be taking anti-air fire."

"Anti-air?" Grim asked.

"No idea what's going on sir," the pilot said as the shuttle then bumped to one entire side as the ship was hit in the side with an anti-air round, "Fuck, we're hit!"

"Can we make the base?" Grim asked.

"Negative sir," the pilot said as he frantically started flipping switches, and turning knobs, "We're coming down! Brace for impact!"

Sasuke and Grim switched on their armor.

As their armor covered their body, the pilot was shot once.

"Oh no," Sasuke said as he grabbed the pilot, and pulled him into the cabin with him and Grim, then sealed off the cockpit.

Sasuke placed the pilot against the wall to examine the wound, "Tell me Sarge," the pilot said, "Am I gonna die?"

"You're going to be fine kid," Sasuke said as the proximity alarm went off, "Brace!"

The shuttle slammed into the ground hard, stunning all three soldiers.

Three minutes later, Sasuke awoke to the sound of the artillery fire, still a little stunned, he reached up to his forehead, and there wasn't a scratch, the armor saved his life.

Sasuke looked to his left, the pilot was out cold, and Grim had just started to wake up.

"Lieutenant," Sasuke said in groggy English, "Grim," in regular English, "You alright?"

"Yea," Grim said, "You?"

"I'm good," Sasuke said as he walked on his knees over to the pilot lying face down in the cabin, "Let's get the kid up."

Sasuke and Grim turned the kid over, no further injuries, the front of his helmet though was crushed.

"Thank god he was wearing the helmet," Grim said as his mask scanned the pilot, "No critical damage: slight concussion."

"Let's wake him," Sasuke said as he grabbed the emergency canteen from above them, poured some water into his hand, and threw it in the pilot's face.

The pilot instantly awoke, "What the hell," he asked, then saw Sasuke and Grim, "We ok sirs?"

"We're fine kid," Sasuke said, "Can you move?"

"Yes sir," the pilot said as Grim took a look at the wall through the shattered cock-pit window.

"What's the situation?" Sasuke asked as he knelt next to Grim, the sunlight was banking below the wall that separated the planet's city of Tisis from the badlands where the Legion had set up shop, illuminating their faces.

"Just like the situation on this planet, bleak," Grim said, "It's a straight shot from here to that grate where we might be able to use to get into the city, but we're already sitting ducks right now."

"And we'd have to crawl out of the cabin in order to get out." the pilot said.

"We'd be shot about a hundred times before we'd make it." Sasuke said.

"Maybe not," Grim said as he reached into his belt, and pulled out a few choice-grenades.

"Brilliant," Sasuke said as he took one.

Choice-grenades, Sasuke's father was the only person, besides the people that make Call of Duty that would dare make them.

The way they work is simple, you choose what kind of explosive you want, pull the primer-trigger, and give the grenade a throw.

"I've got half a dozen of them," Grim said as he took two himself, "Tell me you're a good shot with a pistol Uchiha."

"I'm a decent shot," Sasuke said, "And they called me RichBoy in Selection."

"Ok RichBoy," Grim said, "Let's get out there, pilot, you're with us, stay right on our asses, and be ready to throw those grenades when I say."

"Yes sir." the pilot said.

Sasuke, Grim, and the pilot got ready to run.

"Ready?" Grim asked.

Sasuke and the pilot nodded.

"LET'S GO!" Grim shouted.

Grim selected the flash-bang option on his choice-grenade, hit the primer, and gave it a toss.

After the flash went off, Sasuke, Grim, and the pilot jumped out of the ship, as they did several of the BRD-backed Revolutionaries at war with the planet's Invictus-friendly government fired at them with AK-47s.

I think I should address what soldiers in 2349 are doing with weapons that the military of the 21st century are using.

The answer is going to take some explaining, but not that much. Basically in the year 2290, the four empires decided to abandon the concept of hand-held laser-based weapons, all the experiments tried, and all failed.

The only laser-based weapons the four empires use are really enormous guns that are used on starships.

And the other attempts at making science-fiction like guns didn't work because the way their configured left no room for much design or functionality, so in 2300, the four empires decided that making the same weapons that the military of the 21st century uses is more cost-effective, and efficient.

Back to the story, as the three soldiers charged out of the drop-shuttle, Sasuke turned to his left as the Revolutionaries raised their rifles.

Sasuke let off two shoots, dropping two of the hostiles.

Grim did the same with his own UEA M1911, dropping another two.

The pilot was armed with a standard-issue TAC-45, with a fifteen round magazine.

"Save your ammo," Sasuke took the pilot as he aimed his pistol over the pilot's back, and fired at one Revolutionary, putting a hole directly between the hostile's eyes.

As they were running across the battleground, Sasuke and the pilot each picked up an AK-47.

After two magazines from all three, the three soldiers jumped into the ditch in front of a sewer grate that led into the city.

Sasuke, Grim, and the pilot covered their heads as a mortar hit the area right in front of them, and sent dirt into the air, and showering them with small pebbles and sand.

"Let me see about this grate," Grim said as he tugged at the Gate which didn't budge, "I'll need a little time to go get this off."

"We'll try and hold out," Sasuke said as he checked the magazines on the AK-47, "I've got thirty rounds, you?"

"Twenty-six," the pilot said, "Plus one in the chamber."

"Tell me kid," Sasuke said, "You got a name?"

"Yes sir," the pilot said, "My name's Elliot, Elliot chambers?"

"Where are you from?" Sasuke asked.

"Egyptis sir," Elliot said, "The sand kind of reminds me of home."

"How long you been here?" Sasuke asked.

"Six months sir," Elliot said, "Tomorrow's my fourteenth birthday. I've been doing nothing but flying in and out of ships all the time."

"Alright kid," Sasuke said as he put his hand on Elliot's shoulder, "What I want you to do is have a picture of you and your family in your mind when we're shooting. I also want you to keep in mind what they're going to say when you get home with your gold skull."

"Yea," Elliot said as he looked at his shoulder of his flight suit which was red with blood, "How should we proceed?"

"We cover the Lieutenant until he gets that grate open," Sasuke said, "Until we die, or until our allies come and get us. We're low on ammo, single fire, and aim for the head."

Sasuke and Elliot popped up at more Revolutionaries started coming at them, and they fired.

The Revolutionaries started dropping, and their rifles just fell from their hands, landing almost in front of Sasuke and Elliot.

Sasuke scrambled out for a few quick seconds, then dove back into the fox-hole with about six AK-47s, "Spare ammo," Sasuke said as he took one of the magazines from one of the AK-47s, ejected the magazine on the one he was using, inserted the new one, and continued firing.

After a few minutes, Grim ripped the grate off the wall, "I GOT IT," He shouted, "LET'S GO!"

Sasuke slapped Elliot on the shoulder, and two entered the grate.

After they entered, Grim hopped inside, and pulled the grate shut, after he pulled the grate shut, he pulled out a grenade, selected time bomb, selected the time, pulled the primer, and stuck it in a space on the rocks above the grate.

The Revolutionaries tried to rip the grate off, and when they succeeded, they were met by the explosion from the grenade that caused a cave-in which allowed Sasuke, Grim, and Elliot to get away.

"Nice job," Grim said as he slapped Sasuke on the shoulder, "You did well today Sergeant, showed your stripes."

"Thanks," Sasuke said as he put his hand on Elliot's shoulder, "Kid here didn't do too bad either."

"Not at all," Grim said, "Come on, sewer exit is this way."

The three soldiers walked for a half hour before arriving at a ladder leading upwards into a small command center, "Up?" Sasuke asked.

"Up," Grim said as he ascended the wall, followed by Sasuke who followed the opposite wall, and Elliot followed behind Sasuke.

Once they reached the top of the wall, Grim peaked out, and saw another man with a buzz-cut and a thick mustache.

Grim pulled out his knife, and tapped against the grate above him, Sasuke, and Elliot.

The man heard, and turned around to see the grate being pushed open, the man approached the grate, keeping a steady hand on his M1911.

As the grate was pushed off, Grim exited first, "Hello sir," Grim said as he crawled out of the grate.

"Grim," the man said, "What took you?"

"Stopped by the shelter," Grim said as Sasuke peaked out of the grate, and climbed out, "He's so cute, can I keep him?"

As Sasuke knelt by the opening, he held out his hand to Elliot who accepted his hand, and was helped out of the hole.

"He's got a good heart," the man said then turned toward a female Tigra, "What do you think Melina?"

Tigra are a species of aliens that are born with feline-pattern skin with no fur, and human features. They can only grow to a maximum height of five feet, nine inches tall, and usually have weird hair colors.

Melina was what a type of Tigra known as a Tigress meaning she had the skin-pattern of a female Siberian Tiger, and she had long-flowing dark red hair, and brown eyes.

"You can get out of your armor now." The man said.

Sasuke and Grim hit the buttons on their belts, allowing their armor to retreat into their belts, and showing off their clean uniforms.

"Might I introduce your new Commanding office," Grim said as he pointed at the man, "Major Michael Stone," he then pointed at Sasuke, "Sergeant Sasuke Uchiha."

"Sir," Sasuke said as he saluted Major Stone.

"Sergeant," Major Stone said, "Wait a minute," he pointed at Sasuke's name-badge, "Uchiha, are in any relation to Fugaku Uchiha?"

"No he just looks a lot like him," Melina said, "You're Fugaku's middle-son."

"Oldest now," Sasuke said, "My older brother was killed."

"Really," Melina asked, "Where'd he work?"

"C.O.I.," Sasuke said, "Spying on the Disciples."

"Sorry," Melina said, "And forgive me, I'm forgetting my manners," Melina held out her hand, "First Lieutenant Melina Frost, Team 7's XO."

"Thank you ma'am." Sasuke said.

"None of that ma'am stuff," Melina said, "Call me Claws."

"Nickname during Selection?" Sasuke asked.

"Yep." Melina said.

"Anyway," Major Stone exclaimed, "Let's go meet the rest of the team."

Major Stone, Grim, Melina, walked off as Sasuke slapped Elliot on the shoulder, and told him to get medical attention before standing up, and following his new team.

They arrived in a small area of the command center where three other soldiers dressed in similar uniforms with the very same gold-titanium belts with the same symbol on their belts.

"Hello men," Major Stone said as he entered, and everyone turned to face him, "Meet the new guy."

"Hey new guy," a seven-foot-one male Rikno said as he walked up to Sasuke, and shook his hand, "I'm Butch."

"Sasuke," Sasuke said as he shook Butch's enormous hand that made his look like a child's hand.

The Riknos are a species of alien that get their name from the mighty rhinoceros that rule the great plans on their home world of Rikni, children Riknos are born the size of a fully-grown Greyhound dog, and can grow up to eight feet tall.

Riknos, like Turans have one distinguishing feature, Riknos are born with a row of bullet-proof spines that look like Rhino horns placed beneath of each other running down their backs, and they have unbelievably heavy and solid fists that if hit in the right place can knock a fully-grown human male out cold in one punch. And that is why Riknos are not allowed to be Olympic Boxers, or professional hockey players.

Another Turan, the same size as Grim walked up to Sasuke, and held out his hand, "Marcos," he said in a heavy Brazilian Accent, "First-Class Sergeant Marcos Lamar."

Many Turans live on Earth, although a small number choose of them live in the Favelas of South America or in the slums of India because the Turan homeworld of Turkana is covered in them so many Turan children have either Brazilian or Indian accents.

The third person that walked up to Sasuke was a six-foot-six Turan/Human mix which are known as Hurans.

The Huran held out his hand to Sasuke, five crab-shell like fingers enclosed Sasuke's human hand as Sasuke shook his, "The name's Naruto, Sergeant Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto as I said was six-foot-six, he hand short, spikey blonde hair as opposed to a regular Turan which is completely bald, and had blue human eyes as opposed to solid white eyes.

"Sasuke," Sasuke said, "Sergeant Sasuke Uchiha."

"Uchiha," Naruto said, "As in next in line to receive the Uchiha Enterprise?"

"The same," Sasuke said, "That's me."

"Welcome to the Special Forces Mr. Rich." Naruto said.

"Anyway," Major Stone exclaimed, "Let's get to work," the crew gathered around the central terminal, "There's a small Revolutionary base several klicks outside the wall. We believe that the Revolutionaries are planning something big."

"And you think this outpost might know where this attack is going to take place?" Sasuke asked.

"And how the attack's going to be played," Major Stone said, "I want to see how well you work with others. I'm sending you and Naruto together on this mission, me and the others need to have a talk."

"Yes sir," Sasuke and Naruto said as they saluted Major Stone, and left to grab their weapons.

Sasuke went with a suppressed M16A1 with an attached M203 grenade launcher and an ACOG scope.

While Naruto decided on a suppressed Springfield M14 with an ACOG scope that had a sniper-scope function.

The two soldiers left the command center, and walked toward the edge of town.

Once they walked out of the wall, they were standing in the canyon leading away from the city.

"So where'd you grow up Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

"Vectra," Naruto said, "A Major Huran colony."

"I take it there were many humans and Turans on the planet?" Sasuke asked.

"Yep," Naruto said, "And Marians, that's where I developed a taste for Marian females."

"Nice," Sasuke said, "I prefer Tigra."

"That mean you're attracted to Melina?" Naruto asked.

"She's hot," Sasuke said, "But I prefer girls my age."

"Same here," Naruto said, "By the way, you seem alright for a Billionaire's son."

"Yea," Sasuke said, "Everyone has that same perception that because I was brought up rich that I'm a spoiled brat."

"But yet here you are, a Special Forces soldier working for a hundred and twenty thousand credits a year." Naruto said.

"Yep," Sasuke said, "Strange how life turns out."

"You volunteered for this right?" Naruto asked.

"Yep," Sasuke said, "After my big brother was killed, I was like a lost child, looking for something to believe in, my father did nothing but buy me things which didn't really help because all I wanted was my brother back. Then I saw an ad on the Holo-room when I was watching an old John Wayne movie about the Invictus Army, I saw there was structure, so I signed up."

"I take it your parents didn't take to kindly to the idea." Naruto said.

"There were a little hesitant at first," Sasuke said, "But after they saw what I was going to be doing, they kind of backed off."

"I would suspect," Naruto said, "I kind of like you. The previous three recruits weren't like this."

"Previous three," Sasuke asked as he looked at Naruto.

"Yep," Naruto said, "We've been trying to get at this place for months, and every time the recruit has failed."

"What happened to them after?" Sasuke asked.

"He just fired them," Naruto said, "And said they weren't allowed on the squad again."

"Let's hope I don't mess up." Sasuke said.

"I hope not either," Naruto said, "You're the first new-born I've ever met that has a father with a limitless bank account."

"New-born?" Sasuke asked.

"It's a name we in the Special Forces have for a soldier that passes selection." Naruto said.

As they continued on, Sasuke and Naruto noticed several storm-clouds forming overhead.

"Oh boy," Naruto said, "This is going to be great."

"Rain here on Tarshish 3 right?" Sasuke asked.

"Yea," Naruto said, "Just like Southern California, when it rains…"

"It pours," Sasuke and Naruto said at the same time before cracking up laughing, just as the rain came down.

After half an hour of walking, Sasuke and Naruto arrived at the location Major Stone described.

Sasuke and Naruto took cover behind some rocks, and observed the base, thirty Revolutionaries were standing around it.

"I can see why other recruits had some difficulty," Sasuke said, "How'd the others approach this?"

"They just thought to move up while I covered them." Naruto said.

"How good are your acting skills?" Sasuke asked.

"Pretty good," Naruto asked, "Why?"

"I have an idea," Sasuke said, "Follow me."

Three minutes later, two of the guards at the front of the base saw two unarmed men approaching dressed in their standard uniform which was a pair of black military boots, some octagon-pattern camo pants, a white shirt, and a large poncho that fit over their heads.

"Where've you been," one of the guards asked as they approached.

"Front-lines," one said, "Here on orders from the boss."

"Alright," he said, "Go on in."

The two walked past the men, and into the command center.

As they climbed to the command center, the Revolutionary Commander turned around to see them, "Can I help you two?" He asked.

"Yes," Sasuke said as pulled out his M1911, and placed the end of the suppressor against the man's chest, "You can open that computer, and give us the files, or I'll just shoot you."

Naruto led the commander over to the console, "Open the files." Naruto said.

The commander opened the files, but before he could, he reached for the alarm button.

Naruto grabbed the commander's hand, and lifted it, aside from being vastly superior in accuracy to humans, Turans are quite strong, and at full-strength, they can bench-press a fully-grown Rikno.

Naruto squeezed down on the commander's arm who screamed in pain, "Open the fucking files!" Naruto exclaimed.

"OK, OK, OK!" He shouted.

The man opened the files, and revealed a plan by an Unknown Party to supply the Revolutionaries with RSV-21s aka Big Boy Mortars, and the plan was to use the RSV-21s to destroy Tarshish 3's capital city of New Eden.

"Holy shit," Naruto said, "RSVs," Naruto yanked the commander's head upwards so he could see his face, "Are you really getting so desperate that you're willing to murder civilians?"

"We are losing this fight against you," the commander said, "We are prepared to do anything to get you off this planet."

"That's not going to happen," Naruto said as he pulled out his suppressed Uchiha Enterprises Arms revolver, placed it against the back of the commander's neck, and pulled the trigger.

"Oh boy," Sasuke said as alarms started to go off.

"What the hell?" Naruto asked

"Dead-man's trigger," Sasuke said as he pointed at the blue line running down the back of the man's head that wasn't a vein, and several men came rushing up the stairs as Sasuke sealed off the command center, "Armor up!"

Sasuke and Naruto slapped the Team 7 logo on their belts, and their armor covered their bodies.

If you're curious about what the Team 7 logo is, it's the Roman-Numeral for seven in front of the symbol of Konoha which is the very center of the Legion of Invictus.

Konoha (which we'll get into after the next couple chapter) is a large space station with a radius twice the size of Manhattan that is one entire city. The architect that created the city inside the artificial atmosphere of Konoha took his inspiration from Dubai, Tokyo, and Seattle.

The two then tore of their ponchos, and readied their weapons as the door came flying open.

As soon as the Revolutionaries came running up the stairs, Sasuke and Naruto opened fire.

Seven of the Revolutionaries were killed instantly, and dropped backwards, sending the rest of the twenty three Revolutionaries down the stairs.

Sasuke and Naruto ran over to the stairs, held their guns at the hip, and fired into the falling crowd of Revolutionaries.

After they ran out of clips, Sasuke fired off one round from the M203.

After the explosion, Sasuke and Naruto reloaded, and proceeded down the stairs.

When they reached the bottom stairs, they found four had retreated outside.

Sasuke and Naruto walked out the door, firing at the Revolutionaries.

Sasuke fired two bursts at one of the Revolutionaries, dropping him like a stone.

Naruto fired twice, dropping another two.

As two bullets bounced off Sasuke's shoulder armor, he fired at the last Revolutionary in his area, blood exploded from the man's head and chest.

Naruto fired another three shots, dropping the last Revolutionary.

"Nice," Naruto said as he and Sasuke walked toward the base, "You've did well. At least I can get along with you."

Sasuke slapped Naruto on the back, "Naruto," Sasuke said, "I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"I agree," Naruto said as they walked toward the sun.


	4. Going on the Defensive

**Part 4 – The Battle for New Eden**

Sasuke and Naruto arrived back at Tisis around the late afternoon, and proceeded directly to the control room after disabling their armor.

As the two put their weapons down, and walked into the command center.

"Hey," Melina said as Sasuke and Naruto walked into the separate command center for Team 7.

"So what's the word," Major Stone asked, "We sending this one off?"

"Well," Naruto began, "Unfortunately… this team is now in need of… a new bunk," Naruto held out the computer-chip that contained the information they needed.

"Alright," Major Stone said as he clapped his hands, and took the chip, then lightly punched Sasuke on the shoulder, "Welcome to Team 7 my boy."

"Thank you sir," Sasuke said, "But right now, we need to start prepping our forces."

"I'll decide when that happens," Major Stone said as he walked over to the console, and plugged in the chip to the console, and saw what the Revolutionaries were planning, then turned toward Sasuke, "We need to start prepping our troops," Major Stone pointed at Melina, "Melina, call Fifth-class General (one star general in 21st century terms) Paul, and tell him what these plans are, and see what he'll lend to Sasuke and Naruto."

"I'm sorry?" Sasuke asked.

"That's right Sergeant," Major Stone said as he turned to face Sasuke, "You and Naruto are going to be leading the defenses for New Eden. The senior officers and I have to plan out our way to find evidence that the BDR is behind this."

"Ok," Sasuke said, "Naruto, let's get something to drink."

Sasuke and Naruto walked to the local pub which was right next door to the command center, and both took a seat at the bar, "Hey," the bartender said as he walked up in a white uniform, "Some Special Activities boys, what can I get you two?"

"Beer," Sasuke said, "Clean glass, no ice."

"Gotcha," the bartender said, then turned toward Naruto, "And for you sir?"

"Old Bronze Cup." Naruto said.

"Got it," the bartender said as he grabbed a clean glass for Sasuke, poured a beer, and placed it in front of Sasuke.

The bartender then grabbed a shaker, filled it with ice, poured a quarter ounce of whiskey, a quarter ounce of vodka, half ounce of Pomegranate juice, he slapped a top on it, shook it up, poured it over ice in a bronze cup, pulled out his soda-gun, and topped it off with Root-Beer.

"Nice," Naruto said as the bartender placed the bronze cup in front of Naruto.

"To Team 7," Sasuke said as he raised his beer.

"Team 7," Naruto said as he tapped his glass against Sasuke's.

The two drank their glasses before Sasuke received a call on his on-duty communicator which was based on the Star Trek the Next Generation model communicators, except this one is the symbol of the Invictus Army which is the symbol of Konoha cast in silver metal that is placed on top of a gold metal circle.

Sasuke pinched the communicator, and opened the channel, "Uchiha."

"Sergeant, get over here," Major Stone said, "We've got a lot of toys for the defense of New Eden."

Sasuke and Naruto paid for their drinks, and walked into the command center.

"Hey boys," Grim said as they entered, "Good work on getting that data-drive."

"Thanks," Sasuke said, "What've we got for the defense of New Eden?"

"A whole lot of firepower," Grim said as they walked over to the console, and tapped on the screen, "We've been supplied with a lot of weapons. Right now we've got thirteen hundred ground troops, several hundred Spider-Tanks, and two Railway Guns."

"Railway guns," Sasuke said, "Now that's something I like to hear."

Sasuke and Naruto walked outside in their full armor with their side-arms holstered, and their assault rifles hanging from their shoulders as the soldiers, mostly Corporals, and Privates were loading up their guns for the defense of New Eden.

"COMMANDING OFFICERS ON DECK!" one Private shouted.

Everyone shot into attention as Sasuke and Naruto approached.

Sasuke climbed up on one of the Railway guns, and began his speech, "Men," he exclaimed, "I do not want to begin to describe what we might be up against, but I will tell you this, we are the last line of defense between the Revolutionaries and New Eden. If they take New Eden, they can take Tisis! We cannot and will not lose New Eden! But let me make this clear! I do not want anyone to take unnecessary risks! No one is dying on my watch! We will win this day! Do you hear me troops!?"

"YES SIR!" They all yelled.

"Mount up," Sasuke exclaimed, "Let's take the fight to them!"

The troops mounted up, and took their seats on the train.

The train ride to New Eden was not short, the entire planet is a forth of a planet bigger than Earth, and New Eden is on the other side of the planet from Tisis.

Apparently the Invictus Army had already gotten word out about what the Revolutionaries were planning because with the soldiers had arrived, all the civilians had moved into the shelters located five stories underground.

"Alright," Sasuke exclaimed as he jumped off, "Get those Rail-Guns up and working! Unload those Spiders! Everyone to defensive position! Snipers, set up in those buildings! Let's move it people!"

Two hours later, the small army was all set up.

The soldiers lined up along the front of the train, their weapons at the ready.

As they were preparing to face the mortars, there was a crack of lightning from above their heads, they all looked up, and it started pouring rain down on top of them.

Sasuke and Naruto looked up, and as soon as they did, buckets upon buckets of rain came pouring down upon their heads.

Despite the rain Sasuke and Naruto heard something, they looked down, and several puddles started to vibrate, a large pounding sound came from the distance, and soon a large metal leg appeared over the mountain.

Sasuke instantly knew what it was, "SCORPION!" Sasuke yelled.

A Scorpion is a walking fortress that has a large cannon stick out the top like a scorpion's tail that fires a powerful beam weapon that could vaporize a human in an instant, the entire thing stands forty feet tall, and can carry up to fifty soldiers.

"Rail-Guns," Naruto exclaimed as the rest of the Scorpion came over the mountain, "FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!"

The Rail-Guns took one shot each at the Scorpion, the large walking fortress lost two legs, but kept going.

The Spiders then advanced, shooting at the Scorpion.

Spider tanks (as I should have mentioned before) are large ten foot tall tanks that walk on four legs, it has a large double-barreled cannon on top that fired solar-powered shells at its enemies, and below they have a helicopter machinegun (a machinegun that sticks out in four different directions) and fires solar-powered bullets.

The Scorpion fired at the Spiders as the ground-troops fired at the Scorpion.

"We have to get up there," Sasuke said as he ran over to a bike lying on its side in the dirt.

"Please tell me you know how to use this thing," Naruto said as he grabbed onto the back of the bike.

"I've done some riding," Sasuke said as he reeved the bike, and started forward, Naruto's boots dug in the dirt.

Naruto quickly jumped onto the back of the bike, his feet were really aching after dragging his feet for a while.

As Naruto held onto the back of the bike, Sasuke gunned it, and used a melted Spider-tank as a ramp to launch both him and Naruto onto the side of the Scorpion.

The motorcycle slid across the surface of the Scorpion, knocking twelve Revolutionaries off the Scorpion.

"Let's go," Sasuke said as he helped Naruto to his feet.

The two ran over to the entrance to the Scorpion, and instantly retreated back behind cover as several Revolutionaries fired at them.

Sasuke then held his M16 inside the cabin, and blind-fired, empting the assault-rifle clip, then shooting off a grenade, killing the Revolutionaries.

The two soldiers walked inside the Scorpion, and saw almost one hundred revolutionaries inside, Sasuke and Naruto grabbed all the grenades off their belts, activated them, and threw them all inside.

The grenades all exploded, and set off several other grenades inside, causing a huge shockwave that knocked Sasuke and Naruto to the ground.

Both of them walked into the main cabin, and found that everyone was killed in the explosion.

As soon as they reached the cockpit door, Sasuke opened the door, and both Sasuke and Naruto emptied their magazines into the driver's body.

After emptying the magazine, Naruto pulled the driver out of the seat, pulled a spare grenade out of the pilot's belt, selected Molotov, activated it, and tossed it into the cockpit as Sasuke slammed the door shut.

The Molotov went off, causing the cockpit to burst into flames.

The two then ran out of the cabin as the fire exploded through the doors, and spread around the cabin.

After reaching the edge, Sasuke and Naruto jumped, Sasuke landed first, and it dislocated his leg, Naruto landed next, then helped a limping Sasuke over behind the train.

"All troops, take cover," Sasuke exclaimed as he pressed two fingers to his ear-piece.

All 1,300 troops who had by some crazy miracle survived took cover as Naruto snapped Sasuke leg back into place, and the Scorpion spun off further away from the city, and exploded, sending a shock wave that launched the final trooper into cover, and onto his back.

Sasuke, Naruto, and the entire small army they had peaked out from behind cover as the Spiders returned to them, "We did it," Sasuke said as he stood up on the train, "We did it! We won," Sasuke turned to the troops, "WE WON!"

The entire small army loaded up after making sure all civilians were accounted for, and took the train back to Tisis, every last one of the troops either sat on top of the train or on top of the railway gun, and they were all singing Paths of Victory.

As the troops sun the last line, they clapped, and cheered, Sasuke slapped a few shoulders, and shook a few hands as he moved back toward the Rail-Gun.

Sasuke climbed on the Rail-Gun's platform, and sat next to Naruto on a platform mounted almost at the end of the Rail-Gun's barrel.

Sasuke on the right platform, and Naruto on the left platform, "Some battle eh," Sasuke asked as he raised his leg to check on it.

"Yea," Naruto said as he took a swig from his flask, then passed it to Sasuke, "How's the leg?"

"It's alright," Sasuke said as he let his leg dangle off the edge of the platform with his other leg, then took a swig from the flash, and flinching from the taste, "Holy shit that's strong. What is that?"

"It's called Mylar," Naruto said as he capped the flask, and slid it into the pocket of his armor, "It's from my planet. It's actually just Moonshine from my planet mixed with June-Berries."

"June-Berries," Sasuke said, "Nice."

June-Berries are a special kind of berry that grows in certain areas of the known Cosmos, and is used to add flavors the finest kinds of wine.

"I'm not surprised you don't have a taste for this," Naruto said, "Hurans grow up drinking this stuff. Have it every holiday, including special occasions."

"I'll bet," Sasuke said as he lightly drummed on the railing, "Where do you think the Revolutionaries got a Scorpion?"

"Three letters," Naruto said, "B-R-D."

"One word," Sasuke said, "Obviously."

"They must have gotten desperate," Naruto said, "They were so intent on getting the government off this planet that they were willing to smuggle one of the largest weapons ever created onto this planet."

"Maybe what's happening to them is what's happening to the Soviet Union back on Earth in 1991." Sasuke said.

"What they're going bankrupt," Naruto asked, "The Soviet Union ended three hundred and fifty eight years ago my friend. I doubt the BRD will be running out of money anytime soon."

"Maybe buddy," Sasuke said as he laid back against the floor of the platform, and put his head in his hands, "Maybe."

The two then relaxed as the train continued the remainder of the journey back to Tisis.

When they arrived, they were greeted by the cheers from their fellow Invictus Army soldiers.

The over 1300 soldiers were now heroes because of their work against the Scorpion, and saving New Eden.

The party that night the soldiers threw was glorious, loud music, beautiful dancers, and lots of booze.

In the middle of the party, one of the soldiers silenced the music, and stood on a table, "Alright everybody listen up," he exclaimed, "I would like to propose a toast," he turned toward Sasuke and Naruto, "To Sergeants Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, without them, we would not be here! Sasuke and Naruto!"

"Sasuke and Naruto!" The entire bar exclaimed as they all raised their glasses.

"Alright everybody, alright," Sasuke said as he calmed the bar down, "But this victory wasn't about what Naruto and I did, it's about what all of you, plus us did," Sasuke slapped a wad of credits on the bar, "A round for the house in me and Naruto's toast to you guys!"

The soldiers cheered, and clapped as Sasuke raised his glass, and smiled as the bartender poured a round of beers for the 1,300 soldiers in the bar, it was a good night for those guys.

That night, Sasuke and Naruto walked into Team 7's quarters only to find the entire time was gone.

"They'll be back tomorrow," Naruto said, "Let's get some sleep."

Sasuke walked over to his bunk which was next to Naruto's, "Good night Sasuke." Naruto said.

"Naruto." Sasuke said as he fell asleep.

_Guess what happens next…_

**AND PLEASE COMMENT!**


	5. Shocking Secret

**Part 5 – Shocking Truth**

Sasuke and Naruto awoke to find that their squad was still not there.

"Gentlemen," Brigadier General Ambrose said as he entered.

"Sir," Sasuke said as he and Naruto shot into attention.

"We need to talk," Ambrose said, "Get your uniforms on, and follow us."

Sasuke and Naruto put on their uniforms, and walked into the control room where Ambrose had the situation for them.

"What do you mean missing?" Sasuke asked.

"We got word that the Revolutionaries were planning another strike," Ambrose said, "And there base was closer than we thought. That Scorpion you destroyed the other day, we were able to salvage the memory core, and we found out where it came from. We sent your team in to disable the base. Within half an hour, we lost the signals from almost all of their armor," Ambrose then tapped on the crystalized-heat touch-screen behind him, "All except one," Ambrose removed his hand showing that the signal from Grim's armor was still activated.

"Grim," Sasuke said, "What's the word on him?"

"He's three kilometers below the surface in a former marble mine," Ambrose said, "He's got at least thirty feet of sold marble over his head, and as you know marble acts as like a a giant mirror for our scanners. We can't get a read on is vitals or brain activity, and the rest of your squad has dropped off the map. The big shots in Konoha that started your squad want you to figure out what happened to them, and bring them back if possible."

"Yes sir," Sasuke said as he and Naruto saluted him, and walked off.

The two grabbed their weapons, activated their armor, and climbed into a VTOL transport ship.

After about half an hour of flying, Sasuke raised a question, "How far out are we?"

"Seventy five kilometers." The pilot said.

"Seventy five kilometers is what," Sasuke asked as he scratched his chin, "About forty six point six miles?"

"That's actually dead on." The pilot said.

"That's impressive." Naruto said.

"I did make a positive fifty four point two on my SFT." Sasuke said.

The SFT was created in 2250 by a former Legion of Invictus Special Forces soldier that saw a fresh Invictus Army Special Forces soldier which was a young fourteen year old soldier get killed because he didn't do the math correctly in his head, and he ended up killed in an ambush.

The SFT covers a multitude of objectives from travel, to dialect, to advanced math. What happens is the recruits take the test, and it is then passed onto the base's CO, and they compare the answers you got right to the ones you didn't, and then they check a special chart they know by heart.

"That's almost a perfect score," Naruto said, "That's actually the highest score achieved by a Special Forces soldiers since… ever."

"I know," Sasuke said, "Everyone in my cabin was really impressed with that score."

"I'll bet," Naruto said as he kicked back, and relaxed, "I imagine being a wealthy kid, people expected you to flunk the test."

"They did," Sasuke said, "But I don't like to be judged by who my family is. I may be rich, but that doesn't mean I'm not Special Forces material."

"I think you're alright," Naruto said as he leaned over, and playfully punched Sasuke on the arm, "I've never met someone in this squad, besides Grim I can really be friends with."

"Well now you found one," Sasuke said as he held out his hand, "Friends?"

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hand, "Friends." Naruto said.

Another half hour saw them to their drop-off point, "Approaching drop-off." The pilot said.

"Let's go," Sasuke said as he readied his M16, and prepared to jump as the VTOL hovered about five feet above the ground, Sasuke and Naruto then jumped out of the side of the VTOL, and after they touched the ground, the VTOL took off.

Sasuke and Naruto's visors scanned the surface in front of them, no snipers in the distance, no hidden booby-traps, and they moved forward.

After five minutes, the two found themselves outside the mine, and what was outside was even more shocking.

Two BRD foot-soldiers sitting around a fire in full BRD armor.

The battle armor of the BRD is full metal, and has a very specific type of armor design, the top of the armor's helmet is flat, and the design of the armor is made so it looks like someone just poured blood over the top of the armor, and allowed it to cascade down.

Sasuke and Naruto looked at the soldiers for several seconds before Sasuke snapped a few pictures with the camera mounted inside his mask.

As soon as the command center got the pictures, the order came in for Sasuke and Naruto, "Put them down."

"Alright," Sasuke said as he looked at Naruto, "Let's take them, make it quick, we can't let them know we're coming."

Thirty seconds later, one of the BRD soldiers was poking the fire when his head just simply exploded in blood.

As his friend looked up to see his buddy fall sideways, Sasuke popped out from behind cover, and put two bullets through the soldier's skull.

The two moved into the mine, and found the entrance to the shaft was a rope that dangled down into the mines, as Sasuke started down into the mine, Grim's signature came up on his heads-up display.

After Naruto slid down the rope, he and Sasuke moved forward, and they soon arrived at an area where they actually saw Grim's heart-rate readings, his heart-rate was failing, he was dying.

They ran toward his signature, and found him lying against the wall of then mine, a single bullet-wound in his chest.

"Grim," Sasuke exclaimed as he and Naruto put their rifles down next to examine their bleeding teammate.

Naruto disabled his armor, and Sasuke then quickly ripped open Grim's jacket, Grim's white shirt was stained red with blood, he had been shot by a single .45 ACP round, and it was lodged in his spine.

"Good lord," Sasuke said as he applied pressure to the bullet-wound, "What happened?"

"We've," Grim managed to say, before he coughed blood, "We've… been… betrayed."

"Whose betrayed us," Naruto asked as he gripped Grim's shoulders, "Who?"

"Down…" Grim said as he pointed at the exit, "Follow that trail until… the hanger. Answers there."

At with that last word, Sasuke could feel Grim's heart stop, and Grim died right then and there.

"He's dead," Sasuke said as he removed his hands which were instantly cleaned by the armor's automatic cleaning system.

Naruto grabbed Grim's head, and placed his forehead against Grim's.

Naruto is still half Turan, and in the Turan culture, your show respect for a fallen comrade by placing the deceased's forehead against the Turan's own which signifies they would have gladly taken their place.

Sasuke reached up to Grim's neck, and removed his dog-tag while Naruto took his belt so it could be used by the next member of Team 7 that would replace him.

Sasuke and Naruto moved through the facility, soon arriving at the hanger, and weirdly encountering no enemy resistance.

When they arrived in the hanger, they saw their team dressed in full-uniform standing in front of Michael Elysium, Orochimaru's right-hand man, and the Commander in charge of the BRD Disciples Defense Force.

"We have visitors," Melina said when she saw Sasuke and Naruto approaching the platform.

As Elysium stepped onto the shuttle, Major Stone turned to face Sasuke and Naruto, "Hello boys," Major Stone said, "Glad to see you could make it."

"So you're the traitors," Sasuke said as he walked up to his former teammates, "You killed Grim."

"No," Major Stone said, "We would never kill Grim. That was Elysium. We're leaving the Invictus Army because of what happened on Tetanus 4. Ask the man that started this unit, and you'll know Sergeant," Stone then turned to face Naruto, "Join us Naruto, you've been with us longer than Uchiha here. Join us and you'll be spared."

It was then that the BRD soldiers that Sasuke and Naruto missed came running down the passage way toward them.

"Fuck you Stone." Naruto said.

Sasuke flipped his M16 around so he could send off one M203 40mm grenade launcher, killing several BRD soldiers.

The two loyal Team 7 members then dove into cover as the traitorous members of Team 7 walked onto the shuttle, and threw their belts down in front of Sasuke and Naruto.

"Goodbye Sergeants," Major Stone said, "It's been an honor."

"THIS ISN'T OVER STONE," Sasuke yelled, "WE'LL HUNT AND YOUR MEN ACROSS THE GALAXY!"

The two soldiers were outnumbered twenty five to one, out gunned, and had to think fast.

Sasuke quickly pressed two fingers to his communicator, "Command come in," he exclaimed, "Request payload drop!"

"What kind 7?" Command asked.

"Fifty-pound Butane bomb," Sasuke exclaimed as he blind-fired at the BRD soldiers.

A bomber was over Sasuke and Naruto's position within five minutes.

"They're overhead," Sasuke exclaimed, "Grab a shield," Sasuke and Naruto each grabbed a shield-grenade, "When I say now, smash it!"

The bomber dropped the Butane bomb on the entrance to the mine, and flames soon started spreading throughout the facility.

As soon as Sasuke saw the flames, he shouted, "NOW!"

Both he and Naruto smashed the shield-grenades into the ground, and cause an egg-shell shaped shield to cover themselves.

The fire literally incinerated the BRD soldiers, and once the flames hit the back of the cave, the fire instantly dispersed, and the shields dropped.

Sasuke and Naruto sat back against the rocks, "Good god," Sasuke said, "I can't believe this."

"I know," Naruto said as he gathered up the belts the former members of team 7 left at their feet, "Seems we're the now loyal members of Team 7."

"We're now the _only_ members of Team 7 Naruto," Sasuke said, "And when The Tower gets word of this, there's going to be hell to pay back on Konoha. Shit, we'll be lucky if all they do is court martial us, and disband Team 7."

"The upside is we'd still have our training," Naruto said as him and Sasuke stood up, and walked out of the mine, "Maybe you can convince your dad to give us job as security on Metropolis."

"Maybe," Sasuke said as he clutched Grim's dog-tags in his hand.

When they emerged from the tunnel, the Invictus Army had already arrived.

Sasuke and Naruto walked down the center of the isle of soldiers on the way to the VTOL, all the soldiers were thanking them for ending the battle for Tarshish 3.

As Sasuke and Naruto boarded the VTOL, Naruto placed the belts on the seat next to him, "Shit," Naruto said as he looked up at Sasuke, "Look at us," both Naruto and Sasuke disabled their armor, "We look like shit. This team is dangerous. We've only been teammates for less than a week, and already we've killed what amounts to a Company of Revolutionaries and BRD soldiers."

"We don't even have enough members to be considered a fireteam now," Sasuke said, "Wonder what Ambrose is going to say."

They got their answer when they got back to the base.

Sasuke and Naruto were instantly called into Ambrose's office, when they arrived, they expected to be arrested by Military Police, but instead they were met with a less-than-disappointed Ambrose.

"Please sit," Ambrose said as they entered.

Sasuke and Naruto took their seats in front of Ambrose, "So," Sasuke asked, "When do we turn in our belts."

"You're not," Ambrose said as he looked at Sasuke and Naruto, "But I sure as hell want to see you two turn in those belts and uniforms, and see I'd love to send you back in disgrace, but I can't because the suits back in The Tower want to thank you for stopping an intergalactic-incident, and I've been instructed to do this," Ambrose motioned them to stand, Sasuke and Naruto both stood on their feet, he stood in front of Sasuke first, "In thanks for saving the Legion of Invictus from an intergalactic-incident, I Brigadier General Michael Ambrose hereby promote you Sasuke Uchiha to First Lieutenant," Ambrose removed Sasuke's Sergeant stripes, and replaced them with the chrome-metal bricks that had a skull with a knife stuck in it on Sasuke's lapels.

"Thank you sir," Sasuke said as he saluted Ambrose.

Ambrose then walked over to Naruto, "In thanks for saving the Legion of Invictus from an intergalactic-incident, I Brigadier General Michael Ambrose hereby promote you, Naruto Uzumaki to Second Lieutenant," Ambrose said as he replaced the Sergeant strips on Naruto's lapels with the brass bars that had a broken skull impressed into it on Naruto's lapels.

"I'm the new CO of Team 7?" Sasuke asked.

"You are," Ambrose said, "The suits in The Tower heard what you did for your troops, and that pilot, and they were touched. They've also donated you a ship, it's inside the hanger. Now get the hell out of my sight."

Sasuke and Naruto walked to the hanger, half proud of themselves, half shocked.

When they arrived in the hanger, they found a Corvette-class Spaceship armed with eight defense cannons, four mounted on each side.

The entire ship was about four hundred and eighteen feet long, the beam or the widest point of the ship was one hundred and four feet long, it had two wings coming out of the middle of the ship with two extensions touching the ground that kept it stable while on the ground, it also had two wings at the back of the ship that acted as secondary stabilizers, and another two at the front that acted as the final stabilizers.

The two approached the ship, and a ramp was lowered in front of them, beckoning them onto the ship.

Once they entered, the AI that ran the ship scanned them and spoke, "Welcome First Lieutenant Sasuke Uchiha, and Second Lieutenant Naruto Uzumaki," the female voice said, "Welcome aboard the L.O.I.V. Independence. As the A.I. of this vessel, it is my pleasure to welcome you."

Sasuke and Naruto entered to find the entire place had been made out of a shiny white metal, there were several red couches against the wall with a gaming table, to the right of the entrance was the armory, to the left the infirmary, in front of the entrance was the briefing table, on the other side of the cabin from the entrance was the Captain's Quarters, on the wall to the right of the Captain's quarters was the entrance to the crew's quarters.

Sasuke and Naruto would check out their rooms later, right now they wanted to see the cockpit.

The cockpit was located at the front of the ship, they climbed two flights of stairs before arriving in the cockpit: the entire area took up the whole ten feet of the front of the ship, and was made out of the same metal.

Sasuke and Naruto walked over to the CO and XOs chairs, they were egg-shaped chairs made out of clear plastic, had a chrome rim, and a red-leather cushion.

Sasuke took his seat in the CO's chair as Naruto said next to him.

"The council called," The AI said, "They want to see you at once."

"Knew this day would come," Sasuke said, "Take us to Konoha."

"At once sir." The AI said.

The Independence flew out of the hanger, and once it had cleared the atmosphere, it leapt into hyper-speed.

"Estimated time of arrival at Konoha, three days." The AI said.

_I hope you like the twist I put in this chapter, and I would ask you pay your respects to Grim by commenting_

**Guess what happens next chapter?**


	6. Konoha

**Part 6 – Konoha**

Within three days, Sasuke and Naruto arrived at Konoha, the very center of the Legion of Invictus (if you're curious about what Konoha looks like, go back to chapter 3).

When they arrived, Konoha's space-traffic control tower caught them on the radar.

"You are approaching Konoha," the AI that ran the tower said over the intercom as it established contact with the Independence, "Galactic center of the Legion of Invictus, identify yourself or be destroyed."

Sasuke opened the channel, "This is First Lieutenant Sasuke Uchiha of Team 7," Sasuke said, "We're here on direct orders from the Council."

"Identity confirmed," The AI said, "Welcome to Konoha, Team 7."

After the Independence docked with Konoha, and Sasuke and Naruto got off the Independence, the two soldiers were greeted by Councilor Kakashi Hatake, a seven-foot-two, tan-shelled Turan, one of the founding fathers of Team 7, and the Commander and Chief of the entire Invictus Army.

"Councilor," Sasuke said as he and Naruto saluted their Senior Officer.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki," Councilor Hatake said, "Welcome to Konoha, let's go to my office."

"At the tower?" Sasuke asked.

"The tower." Councilor Hatake said.

Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto walked out of the hanger, and climbed into a private tram-car that took them to the tower.

The tram is nothing more than a small train that runs across the entire area of Konoha, and the private tram-car the councilors use goes straight to a special entrance to the Tower.

When the tram-car arrived, the three men exited the tram-car, and walked into the Council Chambers.

The only people that walk into the Council Chambers are criminals facing trial for Capital Crimes, Councilors, or important soldiers like the members of Team 7 or Generals.

Sasuke and Naruto instantly got the feeling of having power.

When they entered Kakashi's office, they saw his many medals and awards.

Three Trophies of Aegis for peace, an Invictus Medallion, three Flags of Regan, multiple gold skulls, a Wounded Soldier's Medallion, and a Star of Patton.

A Trophy of Aegis for peace is the equivalent of a twenty first century Nobel Peace Prize.

An Invictus Medallion is the highest honor in the Invictus Army which is equivalent to the Medal of Honor from the twenty first century.

The Flag of Regan is a gold-metal pin that has the image of an American Flag with a side-profile of Ronald Regan's face stamped into the face of the medal facing east, a soldier receives it by completing an almost impossible challenge that leads to a great victory.

The Gold Skull, as I should have mentioned before is a medal the Invictus Army gives out to a soldier who's been injured in combat, it's basically the 24th century version of the 21st century's Purple Heart.

A Wounded Warrior's Medallion is a medal given to a soldier that helps a fellow soldier off the battlefield.

And the Star of Patton is for soldiers who display bravery when all seems lost, and save the lives of the men.

Both the Flag of Regan and the Star of Patton are named after the people who inspired the principle that the Legion of Invictus was founded upon, U.S. President Ronald Wilson Regan, and General George S. Patton.

Sasuke and Naruto took their seat in front of Kakashi's desk, "I don't think I think I have to tell you the amount of surprise the Council has felt from your former teammates' defection to the BRD," Councilor Hatake said, "I'm just glad that are two loyal members left. A lot of people think you two are involved, but from what I saw on your armor cameras, would prove otherwise. I want you two to conduct an interview," Councilor Hatake held out a file to Sasuke who opened it.

The file was of a fifty-something year old human male with spikey white hair, the file read:

Name: Jiraiya (last name unknown)  
Rank: Colonel  
Codename: Toad  
Unit Designation: Council Strike Team 777 (codename Team 7)  
Status: Retired

"A retiree?" Sasuke asked.

"He's more than a retiree Lieutenant, he's my friend," Councilor Hatake said, "He's also the other half of the two founding members of Team 7. We started this unit when our old squad was massacred during the Great War. He was the one that got Directive 540 passed. I was the one that led us to greatness."

Directive 540 is a directive created by the founding fathers of the Legion of Invictus that gives the council authority to pull the very best soldiers from every division of the Invictus Army, even from the various police forces, medical services, and emergency services that is under the Legion of Invictus jurisdiction to create a strike force capable of taking on any army ever created. Team Seven is a perfect example of what Directive 540 can do.

Sasuke looked at the file in his hand, "It says he's retired," Sasuke said, "What has got in this?"

"He trained Stone," Councilor Hatake said, "He thinks of Stone like a son. When he found out about Stone's defection, he attempted to take his own life."

"Is he alive?" Naruto asked.

"Yes" Councilor Hatake said, "And he refuses to talk to anyone except one of us."

"A member of Team 7?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes," Councilor Hatake said, "Your car's waiting outside."

Sasuke and Naruto walked outside of the Tower to be greeted by the sight of a stretch-limo.

The two entered the limo, and it took them to Konoha Central Receiving in the Brass District of Konoha, the cosmos's number one place for soldiers and rich people to retire to.

When they arrived, they departed from the limo to be greeted by the flashes of a thousand paparazzi photographers who started flashing photos, "Mr. Uchiha, Mr. Uchiha," several paparazzi reporters asked, "What's the word on Colonel Jiraiya? The rumors about the remainder of Team 7 defecting, are they true? Will you be continuing your career in the Invictus Army after Tarshish 3? Will you be receiving a medal for your actions?"

Sasuke and Naruto walked passed them, and over to the elevator which they took to the seventh floor, and walked down the hall to Jiraiya's room which was being guarded by Invictus Army Marines armed with fully-automatic M4 assault rifles.

"Nobody gets in here," one of the Marines said as he held out his hand to Sasuke, "We're Team 7 Marine: move aside."

"Sorry sir," the Marine said as he stood to the side of the door, and allowed Sasuke and Naruto to enter.

Sasuke and Naruto entered, and were greeted by a sad sight, a man who had survived numerous battles, even the great war lying in a hospital bed hooked up to life-support because of a self-inflicted gun-shot.

"Who are you," Jiraiya asked in a weak voice.

"We're your grandkids," Sasuke said as he walked over to Jiraiya, "Sasuke Uchiha, the new CO of Team 7."

"Good to meet you son," Jiraiya said as he shook Sasuke's hand.

"We need to ask you a few questions." Naruto said.

"What do you know about our team's defection?" Sasuke asked.

"He mention anything about Tetanus 4?" Jiraiya asked.

Sasuke motioned Naruto to shut off the camera, after Naruto shut off the camera, Sasuke answered.

"Yes," Sasuke said, "I heard Stone himself say this was the reason for their defection."

"God Stone." Jiraiya said.

"What happened on Tetanus 4?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't want to say this but you're Team 7," Jiraiya said, "About a year ago, me and Kakashi got word of a known war-criminal hiding out in a compound on Tetanus 4, and we sent Team 7 into extract him. Within half an hour of landing Team 7 came into contact with BRD Defense Legion who fired at them, they returned fire. When they got to the war-criminal's location, they found that the BRD's answer to Team 7, The Samurai had beaten us there. The war-criminal was dead, The Samurai saw Team 7, and a firefight broke out. When the smoke cleared, and Team 7 was extracted, three members of The Samurai had been killed. This caused outrage among BRD citizens, and they threatened war against the Legion unless they turned over three important political prisoners we took during the Great War."

"But the BRD fired first." Sasuke said.

"Exactly, Jiraiya said, "Stone thinks we were cowards for letting the BRD get away with attacking us. That's why he's decided to do this."

"You think our former teammates have gone rogue," Sasuke said, "To take their revenge."

"That is correct," Jiraiya said, "Stone is too loyal to the Legion of Invictus. I know what he's doing."

"Thank you," Sasuke said as he held out his hand to Jiraiya who grabbed it, "Get well sir."

Naruto turned back on the camera, and the two soldiers walked out of the hospital room.

They then walked down the hall so they could talk, "So the defection was just a way to scare us off their trail while they take their revenge?" Naruto asked.

"It all sounds too good," Sasuke said, "But remember what Stone said back on Tarshish 3 about Grim?"

"That he didn't kill him?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Sasuke said, "If we can get a look at the footage from Grim's armor-camera, maybe we can get some insight."

"Let's go." Naruto said.

The two walked out of the hospital, and took the limo back to The Tower.

When they arrived Kakashi greeted them.

After giving their report, Sasuke asked to see Grim's armor footage.

The two went back to the hotel in the Gold District, the ideal place for rich people to enjoy some time on Konoha.

As they started the footage, Sasuke skipped ahead to the part where Grim was supposedly shot.

As the team was moving forward, Grim had his weapon at the ready, and very quickly, Michael Elysium came around the corner with a .45 MP412 Rex revolver, a top-break revolver, and fired at Grim.

Grim was struck right in the chest where the armor-camera was mounted, which instantly caused his camera-feed to go out, and that's why it took so long for him to die, the bullet missed his heart, but the shrapnel must have punctured his heart.

"That's it," Sasuke said, "So Stone wasn't full of shit, he didn't shoot grim."

"Yea," Naruto said, "But that doesn't mean what Jiraiya said is true."

"Alright," Sasuke said, "I'm going to bed."

"See ya tomorrow," Naruto said as he walked out of Sasuke's room, and down the hall to his own room.

That night, Sasuke made a call to his parents, "Hello," Mikoto asked as she picked up the phone.

"Hey mom," Sasuke said, "How's it going?"

"Sasuke," Mikoto said, "What's happening? Your squad's defection is all over the news. You brother, sister, father, and me are worried sick. Where are you?"

"Listen mom, tell everyone I'm ok," Sasuke said, "And I swear I had nothing to do with their defection, and I promise you I'm still loyal to the Legion. I'm on Konoha."

"Oh thank god," Mikoto said, "What's happening?"

"I don't know myself yet," Sasuke said, "Things are really confusing out here. My friend and I are the only remaining members of our squad. Anyway, put dad on the phone, I need to speak to him."

Mikoto called Fugaku over to the phone, "Sasuke," Fugaku said, "You ok son?"

"I'm fine dad," Sasuke said, "I'm on Konoha."

"Were you involved with your squad's defection?" Fugaku asked.

"No," Sasuke exclaimed, "My friend and I are still loyal to the Legion. Listen, I need you to start work on something."

"What?" Fugaku asked.

"Listen before my squad defected, a very powerful person from outside the Legion shot and killed another one of my teammates loyal to the Legion," Sasuke said as he pulled out his communicator, plugged in the disk containing the footage, and sent it to his father's, "I'm transmitting the footage his armor camera received before he was killed. The footage is shattered after the shot, but do you think you can get the dialect unscrambled from after he was shot? I need to know what my team said when he was dying."

"I just got it," Fugaku said, "Should I give this to the tech team?"

"No," Sasuke said, "This is top-secret, you, me, and the council are the only ones that have ever seen this. I don't need this out there damaging the Legion's credibility which is why I sent it over a secure channel that only you and I have a connection to. Give this to the tech guy you trust the most, and tell him to keep it on his person, to keep it in a disk that only allows him to access it, and when you give it to him, I want you to erase it."

"Ok," Fugaku said, "I'm glad you're trusting me son."

"My family and my squad are the only ones I can dad," Sasuke said, "I'll talk to you later."

Sasuke hung up his phone, removed the disk from his communicator, and slid it into the pocket of his jacket.

The next morning, Sasuke and Naruto reported to Kakashi's office.

When they entered, they found Councilor Tsunade, a five-foot-nine female Tigra that had the skin pattern known to her people as Cheetrah because she had Cheetah-pattern skin, with that she long blond hair, and blue eyes.

"Madame Councilor," Sasuke and Naruto said as they bowed before Tsunade.

"Rise soldiers." Tsunade said.

Sasuke and Naruto stood up straight, "It's good to meet the two loyal members of this Government's elite team," she said, then looked at Sasuke, "And the oldest son of Fugaku Uchiha."

"Tsunade," Councilor Hatake said, "As much as we all love listening to you, we do have to get down to business: we are talking about the possibility of an all-out war with the BRD."

"Right," Tsunade said as she walked over to Kakashi's desk, "If you would councilor."

"Alright," Councilor Hatake said, "Your team might have gotten rid of their armor, which as you both know has a tracking device in it, but what the rest of your old team doesn't know is that we've anticipated their betrayal since Tetanus 4, and we ordered them to have mandatory shots. These shots were mixed with nanobots, tiny, miniscule tracking machines virtually invisible on scanners."

"But Nanobots were originally designed to protect soldiers against biological warfare weren't they?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes," Councilor Hatake said, "Something I asked your father to build back in the late 20's. I also asked him to add in the tracking software in there in case such an event happened."

"You've found one of our guys?" Naruto asked.

"We have," Tsunade said, "You old friend Melina."

"Let's be very clear on this boys," Councilor Hatake said, "You're going these place we send you on official word that you're looking for replacements for your defected squad mates, but I want you to keep your mind on the real mission."

"The turncoats." Sasuke said.

"Exactly," Tsunade said as she pointed at Sasuke.

"The profiles?" Sasuke asked.

"Right here," Councilor Hatake said as he held out a crystalized heat-pad to Sasuke who took it, and looked up the profiles.

"We'll keep our eyes on these people," Sasuke said, "Where to first?"

"You're going to Tangu," Tsunade said, "Melina needs to be captured, and this team needs a medic, profile's in there."

Sasuke flipped to the profile, and when he arrived, his initial response was to say, "Whoa."

The replacement they would be considering for Melina's position would be a five-foot-two female Tigra with Tigress-pattern skin, pink hair, and green eyes.

"Her name is Sakura," Councilor Hatake said, "Highly trained nurse with multiple accommodations."

"How long has she been in the Army?" Sasuke asked.

"She's eighteen, she's been in since she was thirteen, you do the math," Councilor Hatake said, "She was orphaned from only four years old when her parents were caught up in the Border-Separation."

"It's says here she's living with adopted parents," Sasuke said, "Who adopted her?"

"Me," Tsunade said, "I was walking around the orphanage, I saw her, and this little Marian girl who were having fun, so I adopted them."

As I should have mentioned before, Marians are a species of ash-grey-skinned aliens that grow up with a deep hatred for the BRD because during the Great War, one very famous battle left the Marian homeworld of Maria covered in poisonous mixture of carbon monoxide and methane, and because of this, whenever a Marian or another race of alien is on Maria, they have to use a sophisticated filtering system that will filter the poisonous gases, and turn it into breathable oxygen.

Sasuke's father saw this design, and integrated it into the armor that Invictus Army soldiers have integrated into their armor, then shared the patent with the Marian government, making them both billions of credits a year off the orders from the Invictus army.

Marian females are born beautiful with either raven-purple or black hair, and either purple eyes with no pupils or gold eyes with no pupils.

"I take it the Marian's not on the planet?" Naruto asked.

"No," Councilor Hatake said, "She's on New Vegas 2."

"We testing these girls?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes," Councilor Hatake said, "While you're looking to see if these men and women are suitable recruits for Team 7, your main objectives are to capture your former teammates, alive if possible. Get out of here, and do some good."

"Sir," Sasuke said as he and Naruto stood up, and saluted their SO, then turned toward Tsunade, and bowed.

The two then turned around, and walked out of the office.

"Are you sure they're the ones?" Tsunade asked.

"From the prophecy," Councilor Hatake asked, "If that's so, then yes."

"They might be Special Forces material, but are they hero material?" Tsunade asked.

"Oh yes," Councilor Hatake said as he looked up at Tsunade, "They might not know it, but they are destined for great things. Remember what we were like at that age?"

"Oh shut up," Tsunade said as she slapped Kakashi on the chest, "Good evening Councilor."

"Madame Councilor," Councilor Hatake said as Tsunade stood up, and walked out of his office.

_The Hunt is On..._


	7. On the Hunt

**Part 7 – Hunting**

Sasuke and Naruto arrived at Tangu half a week after leaving Konoha.

Tangu is a swamp-planet, and was, at one point the very epicenter of big-game hunting before another BRD-backed Revolution caused Tangu to turn into a military operation.

Tangu itself actually doesn't have a government, it's actually considered a moon, and being a swamp-planet, it is deemed inhospitable, and unlivable, the governing body that controls Tangu is stationed on the planet of Duxn.

Duxn's spaceport town of Olean serves as a shipping port for the Legion of Invictus, and that's why some of the Invictus Army Special Forces were deployed there.

When they arrived at the spaceport, they were instantly greeted by Sakura, and a group of Invictus Army soldiers.

"Damn," Sasuke thought, "She's even more beautiful in person."

"Sirs," Sakura said as she saluted Sasuke and Naruto who walked out of the Independence, "Sergeant Sakura Haruno, four hundred and sixty fifth Medical Combat Rescue."

"Ah," Sasuke said, "A medic," Sasuke raised his hand, gesturing her to walk, "Why don't you show us around the town?"

"Of course," Sakura said, "Follow me."

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura walked out of the spaceport, and walked into the town, "Olean isn't the most marvelous city, but she's got her ups and downs," Sakura said, then pointed up at the top of the town's central tower, "That tower for example is the observation tower, you can see everything for miles."

"Might need to check that out sometime tonight," Sasuke said, "Can you show me where the command center is?"

"I just did," Sakura said, "With the battle going on down on Tangu, and the lack of military bases down there, we've had to set up in the tower's middle-level."

"Ok," Sasuke said, "By the way, you're the head of the medical department?"

"Yes." Sakura said.

"Can you show us to your office," Sasuke asked, "Your mother wanted us to tell you about a special assignment she has for you."

"Oh boy," Sakura said, "This way."

Sakura led Sasuke and Naruto to a small tent on the side of the town's central tower.

"Nice office," Sasuke said as he looked around, "This is defiantly the office of a medical officer."

"Alright," Sakura said as she stepped into the tent behind them, "Let's start. What does my mother want?"

"To go on a few missions with us." Naruto said.

"I'm sorry," Sakura asked as she looked at them both.

"That's right," Sasuke said, "Your mother wants us to evaluate you. Since our squad defected, we need new members of Team 7."

"Alright," Sakura said, "What do I have to do?"

"Just successfully complete a few missions with us." Naruto said.

It was then that the intercom came on, "Sakura," the base commander said over the intercom.

"Yes boss," Sakura said as she hit a button on the intercom.

"We've got another load of troopers coming in," the commander said, "Another three dead."

"Shit," Sakura said as she kicked a small box in front of her.

"Rough time?" Sasuke asked.

"You don't know what rough is," Sakura said, "A small group of rebels have decided to set up shop down in the jungles of Tangu. If the conditions and the guerrilla-style warfare weren't bad enough there are savage animals that will rip you to shreds if you so much as look at them wrong."

"Must be stressful," Sasuke said as he put his hand on Sakura's shoulder, "You're doing everything you can."

"Thanks," Sakura said, "But it keeps getting stranger and stranger."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"I mean the rebels down on Tangu seem to know exactly where our troops are when they drop into the forest." Sakura said.

"When an enemy knows too much, it only means one thing," Sasuke said, "A traitor."

"I'm thinking the same thing," Sakura said, "The only question is, who?"

"I think we should figure that out," Sasuke said, "That's going to be your test."

"My test?" Sakura asked.

"Yep," Sasuke said as he put his arms around Naruto and Sakura's shoulders, "Get your fangs out teammates, we're going mole-hunting."

"Ok," Sakura said as she turned to face the exit, "Let's go tell the base commander."

"Hold up there," Sasuke said as he grabbed Sakura's hand, and pulled her back, realizing they were mere inches from each other.

"I agree with Sasuke." Naruto said.

"Thanks for that Naruto." Sasuke said.

Sakura turned toward Naruto, "Sasuke's right." Naruto said.

"Yes," Sasuke said, "Rule number one when on a mole-hunt, don't tell the higher-ups. You can't trust anyone."

"Ok," Sakura said, "Then what do we say to him?"

"That we're here to evaluate you for Team 7," Sasuke said, "And that we are going to do a few missions."

"Ok." Sakura said.

The three walked out of the tent, and toward the command tower.

When they arrived, Brigadier General David Malone greeted them, "Sir." Sasuke said as him, Naruto, and Sakura saluted him.

"Lieutenant," Malone said, "I've been briefed on your mission. You're here to help us win this war?"

"No," Sasuke said as he wrapped his arm around Sakura's waist, and pulled her close, "I'm here to steal this one away from you."

"I also heard about that," Malone said, "What's the idea?"

"Since our squad defected we need to rebuild Team 7," Sasuke said, "This means the best, and after reviewing her dossier, she seems like the perfect candidate."

"Ok," Malone said as he walked over to the command-table, "Several of our patrols have been ambushed. We believe spotters in the jungle are responsible for the killings of our patrols. I'm sending you three and a small detachment of soldiers down to the moon to remove the threat."

"Ok," Sasuke said, "Let's go."

As the three soldiers walked out of the command center, they found a small squad of Marines waiting for them.

"Lieutenant," one soldier said as he walked up to Sasuke, and saluted him, "Sergeant Michael Forbes reporting for duty."

"Good," Sasuke said, "If you would show us the shuttle."

The shuttle was a Type-2 F26 'Falcon' VTOL, 64.50ft long, a width of 44.85ft, and a height 20.50ft. The entire VTOL is powered by two Armedium-fueled turbo-charged engines that generate 50,000lbs of thrust. The shuttle has up to 20,000lbs of various ordnance from six side-mounted 7.62mm machine guns for strafing runs to two 105mm artillery guns for aerial-bombardments or a 220mm drop-bomb for massive-causality bombing runs.

Armedium is a special type of element that is used to fuel starships for short-range travel, it is highly stable, highly usable, and can be made with simple things.

As soon as the VTOL lifted into the air, Sasuke walked into the back of the ship, "What are you doing," Sakura asked as she walked to the back with Sasuke.

"We can't let Command know what we're doing," Sasuke said as he unscrewed the rear panel, and opened it revealing the tracking beacon, "So we're going to set a trap for the mole."

"Using the tracking beacon?" Sakura asked.

"Yep," Sasuke said as he clipped a few wires, and removed the beacon.

Sasuke then looked at Naruto who was standing by the door to the cockpit, and nodded.

Naruto nodded back, then slapped the pilot on the shoulder.

Sasuke then opened the top of the tracking beacon, and pulled out his utility knife.

As the VTOL lifted off, Sasuke began unscrewing the top of the beacon.

"Sir," the Sergeant asked as he leaned towards Sasuke, "What are you doing?"

"Rewiring this tracking beacon," Sasuke said as he cut two of the wires, "There's a glitch in the wiring of these tracking beacons that causes the signal on these to go from inch-accurate to mile-accurate."

"What?" The Sergeant asked.

"It works like this," Sasuke said as he held up the wires, "These two wires connect directly to the servos back at command that allows the computers back in command to be able to track these VTOLs," Sasuke then flipped the wires, and connected them safely, "In the event that a VTOL crashes, these tracking beacons send out a distress signal that can be pinpointed with inch-accuracy."

"That seems helpful." The Sergeant said.

"There's only one problem," Sasuke said, "It also means that these tracking beacons can send a direct signal to command that can be tracked even when not in an emergency situation."

"And we don't want this?" The Sergeant asked.

"Not when on a mole hunt," Sasuke said as the VTOL came to a dead stop.

"X-ray this is Command," Command said over the other line, "We're reading that your VTOL has stopped, please confirm."

"Confirmed Command," Sasuke said as he passed around air-masks, "Working on it."

After Sasuke and Naruto activated their armor, and Sakura and the Marines strapped on their air-masks, Sasuke opened the side of the VTOL, and the entire cabin depressurized.

After the cabin depressurized, another VTOL pulled up alongside, completely inverted, and Sasuke jumped across the gap of the two VTOLs, and landed on the roof of the other VTOL, and wedged the beacon into the space between the seats.

After jumping back across the gap to the other VTOL, Sasuke gave the pilot of the decoy VTOL a salute, and it flew towards the planet.

As Sasuke closed the door of the VTOL, he re-pressurized the cabin, and deactivated his armor.

As Naruto walked down the stairs, and sat on the second from the bottom, the VTOL started moving.

"Command," Sasuke said, "Problem corrected, on the move."

"Roger that," Command said, "What was the problem."

"Just the pilot screwing around," Sasuke said, "Tried to scare us, and the result was the engines shutting down temporarily."

"Roger that," Command said, "Continue to objective."

"Copy that," Sasuke said as he took his seat.

"What's the plan?" Sakura asked.

"You just saw it," Sasuke said, "When we stopped I switched the tracking beacon to the other VTOL which is now directly below us. When the VTOL enters the atmosphere the traitor will relay the information to the rebels, then we come up right behind them, and mow them down."

As the VTOL approached the atmosphere, the decoy VTOL flew off toward their regular landing sight while the team's VTOL switched to stealth mode, they attached their bungee cords, and jumped out the sides of the VTOL when the sides opened.

As they reached fifty feet, the cords jerked them, and they were gently lowered to the ground.

After raising their weapons, the team stood up, and began their walk toward the place where the VTOL was scheduled to touch down.

When they arrived Sasuke held his fist in the air, and stopped cold, the sensors in his mask detected movement behind them, he then waved his hand flat.

The team dropped to a prone position, and disappeared into the one and a half feet of water that they were walking in.

As they did a large patrol comprised of reproduction M113 APCs, with rebels ridding on the side and top carrying AK-12s some with 100-round drum clips, others with 60-round casket clips, others with basic clips and various attachments such as scopes or grenade launchers.

The soldiers in the water, grabbed their rebreathers, placed it over their mouths, and breathed normally.

The M113 APCs with the troops on the top passed over Sasuke and the team, Sasuke went up first, his weapon leaving the water before his head.

Then Naruto exited the water next, his M14 dripped water, after squeezing the grip of his M14, several secret panels opened along the bottom of the M14, and dumped the water inside of the gun back into the water they were walking in.

As the rest of the squad stood up, they watched as the rebels moved toward the decoy VTOL's location, and then followed.

The team soon arrived at the decoy's position, Sasuke signaled Naruto to go up high.

Naruto let his M14 hang from the strap around his shoulders, slung a piece of steel cording around the tree, and climbed.

Once he reached fifty feet, he secured the cording in place, and leaned back into the cord, creating a simple sniper's nest.

Sasuke then signaled the VTOL which came in for a landing right in the clearing.

As the VTOL landed, the Fabrique Nationale FN M3P 12.7x99mm NATO machine gun mounted on top of the M113 unleashed a salvo into the side of the VTOL while the rebels walked out of the cover of the trees firing at the door and cockpit.

Several of the Marines snuck up behind the ACPs, and attached demo-charges underneath the vehicles.

The Marines then retreated back into the trees as Naruto took aim.

"Ready." Naruto said through his communicator.

"Naruto we will engage on your shot." Sasuke said.

"Roger." Naruto said.

Naruto balanced his M14 on a small branch, using it as a stand, the scope read the range was about a hundred and fifty yards, he adjusted the scope, and sent the round.

The round cut an air-line as it flew from the end of the rifle, and struck the rebel in the back of the skull.

As the rebels saw their buddy fall, the Marines detonated the demo-charges, and sent the APCs flying a whole four feet in the air.

The rebels turned around, and as they did, Sasuke, Sakura, and the Marines opened fire on the rebels who were so shocked they didn't have time to shoot back before they were all taken down before they could fire back.

Sasuke, Sakura, and the Marines walked up to the rebels as Naruto joined them in front of the destroyed VTOL, Sasuke placed the butt-stock of his M16 against the ground, then turned the leader of the rebel patrol who was floating in the water onto his back, and found a tracking-computer in a holster on his belt.

"Fuck," Sasuke said, "I knew it, this thing is picking out the transponder signal on this VTOL directly, someone is giving the rebels the frequency of our VTOLs' tracking signals."

"You were right," Sakura said as she knelt next to Sasuke, "Someone in that command tower is a traitor."

Sasuke reached into his belt, opened the M203, and inserted a flare-round into the grenade-launcher.

He took aim, and fired, the round went up just below the tree-line, and signaled the other VTOL to come and get them.

As the VTOL touched down, the troops piled in, and shut the door.

"Tell me Uchiha," Sakura said, "Why did you join the Invictus Army?"

"Long version or short version?" Sasuke asked.

"Either one's fine." Sakura said.

"Ok," Sasuke said, "Long story short, after my big brother was killed I was lost, looking for something to believe in, and the Army seemed like the only thing that could fill that gap."

"Did it." Sakura asked.

"Somewhat," Sasuke said, "Although I can't help but wonder about him."

"About what?" Sakura asked.

"Itachi was killed in action will working for the C.O.I.," Sasuke said, "Killed in action while trying to capture evidence of genocide during a raid on a small town on Tarsus 2."

Sakura then slumped back in her chair, "That was your brother," Sakura said as she looked at Sasuke, "I was there that day."

"You were?" Sasuke asked.

"I was working undercover," Sakura said, "My mother sent me on an assignment to assist him, and I failed. Orochimaru found out about him, and ordered his squad be obliterated."

"Good lord," Sasuke said as he sat back in his chair, "I knew that mother fucker was somehow responsible for his death."

"We're going to go up into the cockpit," Naruto said as he directed the Marines toward the cockpit.

As the Marines and Naruto walked up to the cockpit, Sakura spoke, "Sir, I would request that you would not hold it against me." She said.

"Don't do that," Sasuke said, "And I won't hold it against you. I'm just glad I now know the truth about his death."

Arriving back at base Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura reported directly to the Command tower.

When they reached Command Central, General Malone looked over and saw them, "What the fuck," he asked, "We saw the emergency beacon from your VTOL."

"It was a diversion," Sasuke said as he walked up to the center console, and set up a link to the Council, "We needed to be sure."

"Be sure about what," General Malone asked, Councilor Hatake came on the screen, "Councilor on view!"

Everyone in the Command tower dropped what they were doing, and shot into attention, "At ease," Councilor Hatake said, then looked at Sasuke, "Have you confirmed?"

"Yes sir," Sasuke said as he pulled out a tracking computer, "We found this on one of the rebels. It was directly tracking the decoy VTOL. This is solid evidence sir, someone on our side is working with the rebels."

"You sure Lieutenant?" Councilor Hatake asked.

"Absolutely," Sasuke said, "The tracking beacons in the VTOLs run on a very sophisticated frequency, and the only people that know this frequency are the people in this room."

Councilor Hatake shooed everyone out of the room, "How do you want to proceed?" Councilor Hatake asked when everyone left the room.

"By removing all tracking beacons from the VTOLs," Sasuke said, "No VTOLs leave this port without making sure that there's nothing on them that can allow anyone to track them."

"Why would you do this?" Councilor Hatake asked.

"Because this way the turncoat will be forced to contact the rebels directly." Sasuke said.

"It seems like a good plan," Councilor Hatake said, "Make it so."

"Yes sir." Sasuke said.

Once the staff came back in Councilor Hatake explained Sasuke's plan.

"Permission to speak freely sir?" General Malone asked.

"Granted." Councilor Hatake said.

"I don't think your little rich golden retriever over here doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about," General Malone said, "He's been special forces for several weeks, he's just a spoiled rich kid with armor."

"Permission for me to speak freely?" Sasuke asked.

"Denied." General Malone said.

"I wasn't talking to you." Sasuke said.

"Then granted." Councilor Hatake said.

"I think you might be the one that doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about," Sasuke said, "You're the Commanding Officer of this base, how come you didn't figure out there was a traitor inside of this room from the beginning? Oh that's right, you were last at your class at New West Point."

"Why you little rich asshole." General Malone said as he turned toward Sasuke.

"You want to go General," Sasuke asked, halfway yelling, "I'll take you on right here!"

"I'd be happy to take you on," General Malone exclaimed, "The only thing stopping me from beating you to the ground is this holographic official standing here!"

"ENOUGH," Councilor Hatake yelled, his voice amplified, "General Malone you are out of line talking to Council Agents! And Lieutenant Uchiha you do not go talking to senior officers like that! I hear of one more spat between you, and you'll both be put on probation! But right now Lieutenant Uchiha is absolutely correct on all levels, it was obvious there was a traitor. General as of right now I am ordering you to give your support to Lieutenant Uchiha, remove every last tracking beacon from those VTOLs or I will appoint someone who will."

"Understood sir," General Malone said, "I'll see to it personally."

As General Malone left, his XO Colonel James Monroe, a six-foot tall forty-five year old male Marian walked up to Sasuke's side, "I've never seen anyone speak to General Malone like that before." Colonel Monroe said.

"I want surveillance on him at all time," Sasuke said as Naruto and Sakura moved closer.

"What, why…" Colonel Monroe asked.

"Bringing up him being last at his class," Naruto said, "You were testing him."

"He's shown himself to be very violent," Sasuke said, "I always had my suspicions, but now they're confirmed."

"I'll put it in." Colonel Monroe said.

_Now the hunt is on…_


	8. Exposed

**Part 8 – Mole Hunt**

The next day every Marine posted to guard duty in the hanger was tasked with removing the tracking beacons from all the VTOLs.

And Colonel Monroe had placed under very stealthy surveillance on General Malone.

As the General was being watched, Sasuke was also watching him from the comfort of the United.

After two days, and several rebel hideouts taken thanks to Sasuke's new strategy, Sasuke was sitting in the cockpit of the United watching General Malone working in his office, and completely bored out of his mind, he fell asleep.

When Sasuke awoke he was in a field wearing his armor, he looked ahead, and saw a BRD camp ahead, he approached, and found it still populated, and as he started walking around, he noticed something, as he was walking around the camp none of the BRD soldiers standing around noticed him.

As he approached the front of the camp, Sasuke saw Orochimaru, the head of the BRD himself standing on the edge of a hill dressed in full armor.

He reached into his belt, and found that his gun was missing.

When he reached the edge of the hill he noticed that the BRD motor-silos were moving to target a small village bellow.

Sasuke then saw something that sent fear through his heart, it was his brother Itachi standing bellow entering the village with a BRD squad, and Sasuke instantly knew that it was the day Itachi was killed.

"NOOOO," Sasuke yelled as he jumped down the hill, landing perfectly, then rolling to his feet, and ran toward the village, "ITACHI!"

Itachi turned around, and saw Sasuke, "Sasuke," Itachi said in a surprised voice.

"Itachi, get out of there," Sasuke exclaimed as the motor-silo fired, launching fifty phosphorous-motors into the air, and showering Itachi and his squad in white-phosphorous.

"I'm sorry," Itachi said as he pulled out his gun, and fired. The bullet pierced Sasuke's armor, and sent him to the ground as the phosphorous set the area on fire.

"ITACHI," Sasuke exclaimed as he watched his brother's armor, then skin go up in flames, "NO!"

"I love you Sasuke," Itachi said as he raised the gun to his own head.

Sasuke then heard his name being called, and he snapped out of it just as soon as Itachi pulled the trigger.

"NO," Sasuke yelled as he shot into a sitting-position, Sakura kneeling over him, holding his shoulders.

Sakura kept a firm vice on Sasuke's shoulders, keeping him in place.

"Here," Sakura said as she handed Sasuke some water.

Sasuke took it, and lightly sipped, "Thanks," Sasuke said as he got into the seat.

"Careful," Sakura said as she sat next to Sasuke, "You're exiting a serious dream."

"I'm fine," Sasuke said, "Just a bad dream."

"What did you dream about?" Sakura asked.

"About my brother," Sasuke said, "It took place the day he died," Sakura looked at the ground, "He shot me and killed himself to save me," he then looked up at Sakura, "Did you see him before he died?"

"Yes," Sakura said, "I went into the village, and found myself. I held him as he died, and said I should meet you."

"He did always love introducing me to people," Sasuke said, "Maybe he's trying to tell us something."

"Wait a second," Sakura said as she noticed something on the monitors, "Look."

Sasuke looked at the monitors, and saw General Malone talking to someone in a poncho with the symbol of the rebels on the back.

"We got him now," Sasuke said, "Grab your gun, and let's get him."

Sasuke and Sakura ran out of the room, and grabbed their pistols.

_Meanwhile…_

"This is him," General Malone said as he passed the rebel a picture of Sasuke.

"He's the one standing in the way of our victory?" The Rebel asked.

"Yes," General Malone said, "He figured out our plan."

"And he just caught your treachery live," Sasuke said as he and Sakura came around the corner with their pistols raised.

"Seems I'll eliminate our little problem sooner than…" The Rebel said before gasping in pain, and falling to his knees, his shirt slowly turning red from a small splotch in the center of his chest that spread across his shirt.

Naruto then came walking out of the shadows holding his revolver.

General Malone the reached for his own pistol right before Sakura fired herself, severing General Malone's shoulder from the socket.

"Nice shot," Sasuke said as he ran over to General Malone, placed his arms behind his back, and secured his arms together with some energy cuffs.

"Thanks," Sakura said as she holstered her UEA TAC-45.

"Get up," Sasuke exclaimed as Naruto helped him pull General Malone to his feet, "Always nice to see you Naruto."

"Same here," Naruto said, "Glad I showed up when I did."

"I second that," Sakura said as she dragged the rebel behind the group.

When they arrived at the command tower, Sasuke had the footage of General Malone trying to hire the rebel to kill Sasuke.

As they entered, Colonel Monroe turned to face them, "Lieutenant," he said, "General Malone, you're injured!"

"And with good reason," Sasuke said as he threw General Malone down in a chair, and plugged the video-chip that showed the General speaking to the rebel that Sakura dragged into the Command Center into the main computer.

After the footage ended, Colonel Monroe spoke, "What should we do with him Lieutenant?"

"Figure out what he knows," Sasuke said, "I'll be right back."

Sasuke left, and returned a short-time later carrying something wrapped in a piece of cloth.

"What's that?" Sakura asked.

"Something's that's going to make him relent," Sasuke said as he placed the object down on the table, and unwrapped it, revealing what looked like a solid-brass mask.

"What the hell is that?" Naruto asked.

"Something straight out of the vault at Uchiha Enterprises," Sasuke said, "It's called: The Bleeder, old BRD technology left over from the Great War. It's an interrogation tool, very effective, and very painful to the interrogated. The council wanted my grandfather to study it during the Great War so the Legion could design something to counter its effect, but the war ended before the solution was presented," Sasuke then snapped, and pointed at two Marines, then at General Malone, "You two, put him in the restriction-chair."

The restraint-chair is a full-metal chair with twelve restraints, two for the lower-legs, two for the upper-legs, one for the waist, two for the chest, two for the wrists, two four for the upper-arms, and one for the neck.

Once General Malone was strapped down into the chair, the Marines pulled him into the interrogation room which was a full-metal sound-proof room.

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura entered, Sasuke dismissed the Marines, "You might want to give him something for the pain," Sasuke said as he polished the mask, "The kind of pain this thing delivers can knock a normal man out in a matter of seconds."

Sakura gave General Malone a shot of Relaxitive, the Legion of Invictus's replacement for Morphine, injecting it directly into his tear-duct.

"Never fuck with the Legion," Sasuke said as he activated the mask which buzzed, and the inside of the mask soon lit up with red electricity.

"Wait," General Malone said as he struggled against the restraints, "No, no," Sasuke placed the mask on General Malone's face, no pain yet, "No please!"

As soon as Sasuke released the mask, the mask turned into a helmet, and wrapped around General Malone's entire head.

Once the mask locked in place, General Malone screamed in pain as he felt a tremendous burning sensation underneath his skin that felt like the skin on his face was being separated from the muscle with a hot iron, it was so bad if he didn't have that Relaxitive shot he would have been unconscious.

"Where is she?" Sasuke asked as he turned off the mask.

"I don't know what you're talking about," General Malone said as he breathed heavily.

Sasuke then reactivated the mask, causing General Malone to scream in pain again.

"Where is Melina?" Sasuke asked as he deactivated the mask.

"Fuck you." General Malone said.

"Then I'm sorry for this," Sasuke said as he reached around to the side of the mask, and pressed a small button.

"What'd you do?" General Malone asked.

"The Bleeder has two functions," Sasuke said, "Torture, and Bleed. The Bleed function is much worse than the Torture function."

Sasuke then turned on the mask, and General Malone screamed so loud that if the walls weren't soundproof, the Marines patrolling the walls of Olean would have heard it.

The eyes and mouth of the mask glowed bright red, and the BRD symbol on the forehead also glowed red.

Sasuke then leaned in close to General Malone's ear, "Where is Melina?" Sasuke asked.

"She's at coordinates 66 by 55'13.99 North, 94 by 52'42.97 West," General Malone said, "Point Blood, Rebel Headquarters."

"Why did you betray the Legion?" Sasuke asked.

"My grandparents were killed by the Legion," General Malone said, "Executed for War-crimes. I want my revenge!"

"Now you won't get it," Sasuke said as he switched off the mask.

The mask instantly turned back into a normal brass face-mask, and fell off Malone's face and into Sasuke's waiting hand.

General Malone raised his face to reveal that his entire head had been completely burned, and horribly disfigured by the Bleeder, his lips were completely black and cracked like charcoal, his eyebrows were gone, his cheeks had been burned off revealing the muscle tissue underneath, his nose was heavily blistered, and his hair had been burned off his head.

"Oh my god," Sakura said as she looked at General Malone, "What happened to him?"

"The Bleeder happened," Sasuke said, "It uses raw, heated plasma to burn the skin on the interrogated person's face. The Bleed-Option uses Dark-energy to pull information directly from the interrogated person's mind."

"What do we do with him?" Naruto asked.

"What we can with traitors," Sasuke said as he pulled out his M1911, and executed General Malone with one bullet directly between the eyes.

The bullet spilled General Malone's brain over the floor of the interrogation room, just making General Malone another one of the rebels who had been executed in the room before him.

Sasuke then picked up the shell-casing from the .45 ACP bullet he fired, and placed it inside General Malone's pocket.

"Now we know where Melina is," Sasuke said as he holstered his M1911, "Let's get her."

"Who is Melina?" Sakura asked as the three soldiers walked out of the Interrogation room.

"Team 7's former Medic," Sasuke said as they walked toward the Command Center, "One of the Defectors."

"The ones that defected to the BRD?" Sakura asked.

"The very same," Sasuke said as they entered the Command-Center, "Now we have her, and we're going to make the arrest."

"What arrest?" Colonel Monroe asked.

"I'll explain later," Sasuke said, "I want you to get me and my team a VTOL prepped and ready to go in seven minutes, and I need the orbital-artillery emplacements orbiting Tangu ready to strike Point Blood."

"Alright," Colonel Monroe said, "Shock and awe?"

"Maximum destruction," Sasuke said, "I want that base destroyed, and no evidence left behind."

"Ok," Colonel Monroe said, "I'll get right on it."

As Sasuke and Naruto walked out, Sasuke turned toward Sakura, "Sakura," he said, "What are you doing?"

"I'm waiting here," Sakura said, "I'll watch the op from here."

"That's a weird place for a Ninja to be during an op." Naruto said.

"Excuse me sir?" Sakura asked.

"That's right Sakura," Sasuke said as he pulled out Melina's old belt, and tossed it to Sakura, "You're one of us now."

Sakura strapped on her new belt, and pressed the Team 7 symbol on the belt.

Her body was then covered in her new armor, very similar to what Sasuke and Naruto were wearing except for the fact she was a woman so her breasts were visible through the metal plate mounted along her chest.

The three Ninjas walked out of the Command Center, grabbed their weapons, and walked toward the hanger.

As they boarded the VTOL, Sasuke set up a line to Councilor Hatake.

When they were in space heading toward Tangu, Councilor Hatake came over Sasuke's personal communicator, "Lieutenant," Councilor Hatake said, "What the situation?"

"General Malone has been exposed sir," Sasuke said, "He was trying to hire an assassin to kill me, but we busted him before the transaction could be completed. Through some thorough interrogation we managed to get the location of Asset 2-4-5-8."

"General Malone is dead?" Councilor Hatake asked.

"Yes sir," Sasuke said, "I saw to that personally."

"What about your new recruit?" Councilor Hatake asked.

"She's a pass sir," Sasuke said, "You can inform her mother of the news and put in a request for her uniform."

"Ok," Councilor Hatake said, "Good luck Lieutenant."

Once Sasuke put his communicator away, Sakura looked up at Sasuke who placed his head on top of the barrel of his M16, and exhaled slowly.

"Once she was your friend now she's your enemy," Sakura said as she leaned toward Sasuke, "What'll you do once you find her?"

"We intend to arrest her," Sasuke said, "Our objective is keeping her alive so she can face trial with the rest of her squad."

"What about BRD soldiers," Naruto asked, "Just wanted to say."

"Non-issue," Sasuke said, "Kill them all."

The VTOL came right above the drop-zone, several meters away from Point Blood, when they attached their bungee-cords, the pilot told them to jump.

Once they reached the ground, Sasuke looked over at Sakura, "Word of advice, keep your head on a swivel, and your finger on your trigger," Sasuke said, "These people are not rebels, everyone inside Point Blood is a trained BRD Special Forces soldier, everyone in there has been trained to kill."

"Ok," Leina said, "I won't hold back."

"Good," Sasuke said as he motioned toward the base.

The three soldiers approached the base, when they arrived the found it shaped like a pyramid, a common structure form that the BRD used to honor Pharaoh Khufu who Orochimaru's forefathers who started the BRD based their rise to power on.

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura climbed up the side of the base, the only real problem with the pyramid buildings the BRD uses is that the wall's angle is very steep.

Once they arrived at the top of the wall, the three jumped into the trenches on top of the wall.

Sasuke looked at his wrist-computer, and saw that Melina's signal was coming from inside the structure.

"Ok," Sasuke said, "Naruto, cover our six, we're moving."

The three moved down the trench, and soon arrived at a hatch leading into the base, as Sakura and Naruto covered him, Sasuke slowly opened the hatch, pulled out his twelve-inch Kunai knife, and slid it around the inside of the hatch, checking for traps, and found a single piece of twine tied around the inside-latch attached to a grenade.

After cutting the wire, he ducked, and covered his head.

Even though the primary fuse was disabled, there is always the possibility of a secondary charge.

When it didn't go off, Sasuke raised the door, and held it open, "Alright we're clear," he said, "Let's go."

Sakura entered first, and as she was half way down the ladder, Naruto went down next.

Once Naruto entered, a bullet struck the hatch, missing Sasuke's hand by an inch.

Sasuke drew his M1911, and swiftly turned around to empty the clip into two BRD soldiers, killing them both.

After reloading, Sasuke holstered his M1911, grabbed his M16, then climbed into the hatch, just in time to kill two more BRD soldiers that came running, and rearm the explosive.

He quickly slid down the ladder just in time to have a small platoon of BRD soldiers yank open the door, and set the grenade off.

As Sasuke hit the ground, he rolled backwards, and had a piece of shrapnel miss taking his hear off by half an inch.

As he rolled, his back stuck the wall Naruto and Sakura were taking cover behind with bullets flying over their heads.

"Can't get any closer right?" Naruto asked.

"Yep," Sasuke said as he checked his wrist-computer, Melina was on the other side of the compound, "Looks like we've got a lot of fighting between us and Melina."

"I know," Naruto said as he covered his head as a bunch of concrete from the ground dropped on top of the team's heads.

"Let's move," Sasuke said as he stood up, and let off several shots.

As Naruto let off several shots, Sakura got a Nitro tank right next to a small squad of BRD soldiers, sending them flying.

"Nice one," Sasuke said as he stood up, followed by his team-mates, "Let's move."

The three moved up, and found themselves being fired upon by several dozen BRD Special Forces squads.

"How are we going to get passed these guys?" Naruto asked.

"With power," Sasuke said as he opened a comm to Colonel Monroe, "Colonel come in."

"This is Monroe Lieutenant," Colonel Monroe said, "What do you need?"

"An emergency round delivered," Sasuke said as he grabbed a locator beacon, and switched it on, "There should be the signature from a locator beacon coming on the screen now. Target, and fire."

"Roger," Colonel Monroe said, "Starting timer."

Sasuke threw the locator beacon at the BRD soldiers who saw it land at their feet with confusion.

Sasuke looked at the timer on his wrist-computer, then looked at Naruto and knew they were thinking the exact same thing.

Both of them pulled out shield-grenades, and activated them as Sasuke kept watch on the count-down clock on his wrist-computer until the round from the orbital-bombardment satellite would impact.

"Impact in five seconds," Sasuke said, "Four, three, two… NOW!"

Sasuke and Naruto smashed the shield-grenades into the ground as the round impact.

The .105mm explosive ripped a hole clean through the roof of the base, landed right in the center of the crowd of BRD Special Forces, and virtually disintegrated them.

The shockwave struck the shield, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were taking cover behind, and sent them flying backwards, avoiding the explosion by mere inches.

As they gathered up their weapons, they looked back as the explosion settled, and alarms started going off.

"We've been compromised," Sasuke exclaimed, "Let's get Melina and get the hell out of here!"

Steam started shooting out of the walls as Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura started running through the facility toward Melina's signal.

When they arrived they saw Melina standing inside a large observation post with her USP .45 pointed at the head of a BRD Colonel.

The three ran up the ramp toward the position, "MELINA DON'T!" Sasuke yelled.

As they busted into the observation post there was the sound of a weapon discharging, and the BRD Colonel was launched through the glass.

As Melina turned around, she raised her hand in the air, ejected the magazine in her USP, then pulled back on the slide, ejecting the last bullet, she then slid them both into her belt.

"Ok," Sasuke said as he kept his sights trained on Melina, "Hold your hands in front of your waist, and don't move."

Melina held her hands together in front of her waist as Sasuke approached her, "It's good to see you again Sergeant." Melina said.

"Its Lieutenant now," Sasuke said as he secured Melina's arms with some plasma-cuffs, "And you're under arrest."

As Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were escorting Melina, several BRD soldiers came running at them with their weapons raised.

"MOVE, MOVE," Sasuke yelled as he pushed his team and Melina along.

Pretty soon they arrived at the ladder exiting the building, and they started to climb, Naruto first, Melina next, Sakura third, and Sasuke last.

As Sakura started climbing, Sasuke contacted the VTOL, "HUNTER TWO-ONE," Sasuke yelled, "WE'RE READY FOR EXTRACTION! WE NEED YOU NOW!"

"We'll be there Delta," the VTOL pilot said, "ETA two minutes."

As Sasuke started up the ladder, Sakura stopped three fourths of the way up the ladder while Naruto was messing with the hatch.

Sasuke was right below her, "You know you can stop looking up my ass, and come on up here Lieutenant." Sakura said.

"I'm just glad you Tigra don't have tails or you'd be slapping me in the face," Sasuke said as he walked up the ladder to be level with Sakura, and joined in while she fired at the BRD Spec Ops soldiers, "Unlike your distant one-foot tall cousins."

"The common house cat." Sakura said.

"Exactly." Sasuke said.

"I was going to ask you Sasuke," Melina said, "What this girl is doing wearing my belt."

"What used to be your belt," Sasuke said as he looked up at Melina, "You lost this belt when you defected, so shut your damn mouth, and show your replacement a little fucking respect!"

"I got it," Naruto said as he busted the hatch open.

"Delta, we're coming in for extraction," the VTOL pilot said, "We're seeing lot of small-arms fire from the ground."

"Hunter two-one we have the package," Sasuke said as he crawled out behind Sakura, "Get ready for immediate dust-off!"

As soon as the VTOL came in for a landing, Naruto jumped into the side, and pulled Melina in after him.

Once Sakura jumped in, the VTOL began lifting into the air.

After Sasuke grabbed onto the side, he felt someone grab hold of his leg as the VTOL lifted him into the air.

Sasuke looked down to see a single BRD soldier was lifted into the air with him.

As the BRD soldier raised his .44 Desert Eagle a shot rang out, and the BRD soldier's helmet exploded with a single stream of blood.

Sasuke looked up after the BRD soldier released his grip, and fell into the swamp below, and saw Sakura standing there holding her USP .45.

"Nice one," Sasuke said as he climbed the rest of the way into the VTOL then contacted Colonel Monroe, "Colonel, we're clear, begin bombardment."

"Roger that," Colonel Monroe said as he cleared the orbital-bombardment satellites to bury Point-Blood.

After five seconds, Sasuke sat on the edge of the VTOL, and watched as Point-Blood was showered in .105mm shells.

"Not exactly fireworks," Sakura said as she leaned down next to Sasuke, "But it's good enough."

"Quite a sight isn't it?" Sasuke asked.

When they arrived back at Olean, Melina was taken by armed-guard to the prison-transport ship _Justice_ while Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura watched from the balcony.

"Where're they taking her?" Sakura asked.

"Somewhere the BRD can't get her," Sasuke said, "Once we get the others, we'll talk to her," Sasuke then turned toward Sakura, "By the way, I received word from Councilor Hatake, he says your uniform will be at our next location."

"So I'm in?" Sakura asked.

"Absolutely," Sasuke said as he held out his hand, "Welcome to Team 7."

"It'll be an honor sir," Sakura said as she shook Sasuke's hand.

"The honor will be mine," Sasuke said as he motioned Sakura toward the hanger, "Come, the Independence awaits."

Sasuke and Naruto led Sakura to the Independence, when they arrived, Sakura could feel accepted as she stepped onto the ship.

Half an hour later, once the Independence was in orbit above Duxn Sasuke was dressed in his civilian clothes sitting in the study which resembled Leonardo Da Vinci's workshop writing with an ink-quill and a pair of glasses.

"So this is where you spend your free time," Councilor Hatake said as he entered the study dressed in his council robes.

"Councilor Hatake sir," Sasuke said, "I wasn't expecting you."

"Da Vinci's study," Councilor Hatake said, "I was expecting Eisenhower's Office, or the Kennedy Compound."

"I find Renaissance Italy to be more relaxing than 20th Century D.C. or Maine," Sasuke said as he dipped his quill in ink, and continued writing, "Besides, who can resist the temptation of roleplaying?"

"What are you writing?" Councilor Hatake asked.

"My report," Sasuke said as he signed his name at the bottom, "Computer submit report to Council Computers."

The words then disappeared off the page, and Councilor Hatake lifted his tablet so he could see Sasuke's report, "Very good," Councilor Hatake said, "I'll contact you with your next objective when I have them. By the way, I didn't know you wore glasses."

"I don't," Sasuke said, "They're holographic, and don't do a thing."

"Ok," Councilor Hatake said, "I'm sure Councilor Tsunade will be happy to hear her adopted daughter will be flying with the Council's best."

"I'm sure she will sir," Sasuke said, "I'm sure she will."

Councilor Hatake's image then flickered and disappeared from the room just as Sakura entered.

"Hello Sakura," Sasuke said as he stood up, "What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd see what you were doing," Sakura said, "So, Da Vinci's office?"

"This is only to submit reports," Sasuke said as he walked over to one of the book shelves, and found one book labeled, _The Palace_.

When he pushed it in, Sakura found herself and Sasuke standing in the Oval Office, "The White House," Sakura said, "It looks different."

"That's because it is," Sasuke said as he walked over to the window, and pulled the Curtain aside to reveal the 1960's, 50's, and 40's cars parked outside, "We're in the Oval Office in 1962. I like to pass the time this way."

Sasuke walked over to the desk, and sat down in the President's chair.

"Well Mr. President," Sakura said as she sat down in the chair in front of the desk, "I just want to say I hope I can live up to the expectations of the Council."

"The Council's expectations are the same as me," Sasuke said, "And all I expect you to do is to do your absolute best, no exceptions."

"I hope I can meet those expectations," Sakura said, "I'll see you at the briefing."

As Sakura walked out, Sasuke leaned back in the chair, and relaxed.

_Sakura's in the group, guess whose next…_


End file.
